THE 



GASTERN QUESTION. 



VARIOUS PHASES. 



EGTfTIAll. miW^ RUSSIAl^. eneWAH. PPREW. AMEl^ICAH. 

md WESSIAHIC. 



J. p. WEETHEE. 



Author of COMING AGE, ARMAGEDDON AND OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 



Of WASHmC^ ^ 



COLUMBUS, OHIO. 

PRESS OF J. L. TRAUGER 

1887. 






ENTERED ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1887, 

By J. P. WEETHEE, 

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON. 



C. J. CAMPBELL, J. L, TRAUGER, 

6LECTR0TYPER. PRINTER. 



Je 6ecl 



THE MAKER OF ALL THINGS, THE RULER AND DISPOSER OF. 
THE DESTINIES OF ALL NATIONS J 

Je Jesas> 

THE MESSIAH, THE SAVIOR, AND HEIR TO DAVID'S THRONE ,* 

TO STATESMEN, THEOLOGIANS, PHILOSOPHERS, 

AND LOVERS OF GENERAL SCIENCE AND 

KNOWLEDGE ; 

SACRED AND PROFANE; 

TO ALL THE SEARCHERS AFTER TRUTH, 

PIETY AND WISDOM, 

Tt)cse pages arc pai7)bl2j at)d S^Pceret^ O^dtcated^ 

WITH THE MOST DEVOUT PRAYER, 

THAT THEY MAY BE ABUNDANTLY BLESSED IN BRINGING 

MANY TO THE REDEEMER. 

J. P. WEETHEE. 



Contents. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 

CHAPTER T. 

From the Formation of His Empire to His Death, A. D. 632 — Land of Israel Fertilized 
— Arabian Dynasty of the Mohammedan Empire — The Origin of the Roman Em- 
pire — Mohammedan Empire— By What Means the Land of Israel is Fertilized — 
The Term Water, its Various Meanings — Mohammedan Empire Under the Dynasty 
of Caliphs — The First Caliphs and Their Mission — Their Successors — Fifth Caliph 
Additional Remarks — Wild Beasts as Symbols — Ottoman or Turkish Dynasty — 
Origin of the Turkish Dynasty — Second Saltan — Third Sultan — Prelude 27 

CHAPTER II. 

Egypt — Description of Egypt — Its Peculiarities — How Fashioned — A Description of the 
People of Egypt — Egypt, Past History of its People — The Traditional Period — 
Monumental Period — The Labyrinth — The Lake Moiris — Pyramids — Prelude — A 
Step in Advance — A Terrible Hour — The Great Pyramid, Continued — Problems 
of Science — Time of Erection — Purpose of Erection — Hebrew Sojourn and Bondage 
— God's Claims over Egypt — God's Judgments of Egypt— A Look into the Future 
— Egyptian History, Continued— Predictions Regarding Egypt— God's Predictions — 
Close of Egypt's Supremacy — Explanation of Isaiah xix. 25 — Egypt under Babylon 
— Egypt under Persia — Egypt under Greece — Close of this Period — Egypt under 
Rome — Can the Moral Constitution of a People be Changed Without the Sub- 
version of its Political System ? — Egypt under Mohammedan Arabia, A.. D. 640 to 
A. D. 1250— Egypt still Degenerating 48 

CHAPTER III. 

Egypt under the Turk, from A. D. 1517 to A. D. 1840, 323 to 328 Years— Had the 
Creator a Special Purpose in the Size of the Earth? — Suez and its Ship Canal — 
What Does the Drying up of the Euphrates Symbolize? — Second Question — Is it 
Necessary that the Ottoman Empire Should be Totally Annihilated Before the 
Coming of Christ for His People ? — Egypt in 1882— Its Present State — Its Uprising 
Its Results and its Bearings on the Future— Prelude — Certain Questions Con- 
sidered — Egypt in the Future — Prelude — Explanations — Egypt in the Future Way- 
Marks— Egypt's Union with Israel and Assyria— Fourth Way-Mark — Egypt in the 
Future— Fourth Way- Mark— The High -Way— Fifth Way- Mark— The Family of 
Egypt under the Joint Reign 69 

BRITISH PHASE. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Propriety of the Name— Elements, Growth, and Mission of Great Britain, Stated and 
Outlined. British Phase — British Empire as it Now Exists— What has Christianity 
to do with Natural Science and Profane History? — Island of Great Britain — The 
British Shipping — By What Various Families and Races has the Island of Great 
Britain been Ruled? — The British or Saxon Empire — European Home of the 
Saxons 70 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Their Peculiar European Location — As Early as A. D. 141— Law of Distribution of 
the Human Family— Two Classes of Mankind — Distinct Migrations— Saxons in 
Their European Home — Its Divisions — Education on Land and Sea — Is There any 
Want of Harmony Between the Writings of Peter and Paul Eelative to the 
Future ? — A Difficulty Explained — Saxon Mode of Life in his European Home — 
Sea Kings? — Increase of the Anglo-Saxon — Saxon History — Geographical Location 
of the Sacse — Great Centre of Immigration — Saxons Traced from their Home in 
Southwestern Asia to their Location in Central Asia— Increase of Certain Nation- 
alities — The Decrease of Others — History of the Hebrews to the Captivity of the 
Ten Tribes — "A Light to Lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of My People 
Israel" — Is the Mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse an Asiatic or European City? 
The Ten-Tribed Kingdom, Continued — What Became of Jeremiah at the Fall of 
Jerusalem? — Ten-Tribed Kingdom in Captivity — Have the Throne and Kingdom 
of David a Continuous Existence? — Anglo-Israel — Is Jesus of Nazareth the Legal 
Heir to David's Throne? — Commercial Intercourse — Colonization Period 127 

CHAPTER VI. 

Dan, the Head Tribe of Traffic and Colonization — The Sceptre of Judah — Points of 
Identity — Authors and their Views—Isaiah xviii. Examined, Explained, and In- 
terpreted — The Land here Intended 146 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Eastern Mission of the British Empire — Eastern Policy of the British Empire 
Further Examined — Great Work for England — To Colonize the Jews in Palestine 
and Protect them 155 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Who is Russia? — The Russian Field — Its Surface Configuration — The Tenant Adapted to 
the Field — Siberian or Asiatic Russia — Sons of Japheth — Who were the Scythians 
attacked by Darius the Mede? , 177 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Northern or Russian Field under the Roman Empire — Tribal Russia, Continued 
— Russian Born 214 

CHAPTER X. 

Russian History — The First Scandinavian Dynasty — Ruric A. D, 862-1505, 643 years — 
First Raid on Constantinople, A. D. 876— Second Raid, A. D. 908— Third Raid, A. 
D. 938— Fourth Raid, A. D. 1015— Fifth Raid, A. D. 915— Russians Converted to 
Christianity— Sixth Raid on Constantinople, A. D. 1043— Mogul Tartar Invasion, 
A. D. 1222 — Continuing Two Centuries and One Half — The Russian Monarchy 
under its Czars of Muscovy, A. D. 1533 to A. D. 1682, 149 years 229 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Second or Romanoff Dynasty of the Russian Empire, A. D. 1598-1887— Russian 
Empire under Peter the Great— Will of Peter the Great— Death of Paul— Alex- 
ander L, A. D. 1801-1825— Nichola 256 



CONTENTS. yH 

CHAPTER XII. 

Nicholas— Nihilism— Russian Aristocracy— Serfs— Michael Bakunin— War with Turkey 
Alexander II. — Birth — Death — Education — Life — Alexander III 274 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Russian Empire from A. D. 1884 to the Close of the Millennal Age— Divine Record 
— Eze. xxxviii. 1-2. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9-12-13.— History in Full, of Tarshish— 14. 15. 16. 
17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.— Eze. xxxix. 1-8. 9. 10. 11. 17-21-25.— Zech. xii. 2-3. 4-8. 
xiv. 1-9— Close of Russian Phase 311 

OTTOMAN PHASE. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Origin of the Turk- Turko-Scythian Empire— Bertezena— Religion— Conquests— History 
314 

CHAPTER XV. 

Second Turkish Empire with Preliminary Families — Dynasty of Samanides, A. D. 874 
to A. D. 999, 125 years— Dynasty of Gasnevides, A. D. 999 to 1183, 184 years— 
Mahmud — Massoud — Togrul Beg — Alp Arstan — Malek Shah — Change of Location 
Seljukian Empire — History 342 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Third Turkish Empire — Ottoman Empire, (1) Othman, (2) Orchan, (3) Amurath First, 
(4) Bajazet, (5) Soliman, (6) Amurath II., (7) Mohammed II.— Life of Othman— 
Life of Orchan — Life of Amurath First — Life of Bajazet — Life of Soliman — Life of 
Amurath II. — Life of Mohammed II 346 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Official Reign of the Ottoman Empire, from A. D. 1453 to A. D. 1887 — Constantinople 
— Bajazet II. — Selim — Solyman II. — Selim II. — Amurath — Mustapa — Othman — 
Amurath IV. — Mohammed IV. — Solyman II. — Ahmed II. — Mustapha II. — Ashmed 
III.— Mahmud I.— Othman III.— Mustapha III.— Abdul — Hamid — Selim III.— 
Mustapha IV. — Mahmud II. — Abdul Medjid — Abdul Azir — Review — Egypt — Ismail 
Pasha — Ottoman Empire as it Now is 370 

HEBREW PHASE. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Origin of the Hebrew Family — Size of the Land — Promises — Egyptian Epoch — Vast 
Increase — Their Bondage — Plagues Leave Egypt 391 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Giving of the Law — Wilderness Life — Theocracy 401 

CHAPTER XX. 

Twelve-Tribed Monarchy— Saul— David— Solomon — Ten-Tribed Monarch — Two-Tribed 
Monarchy — Long Captivity — 70 Years' Captivity — History of Judah to Birth of 
Messiah — Struggles — Remmant Build the City — Second Temple (Haggai) — Temple 



VIII CONTENTS. 

by Herod— Purim — Ptolemy Philadelphus B. C. 271 — Ptolemy Philopater — Jewish 
Persecutors — Seleucus Philopater, King of Syria — Antiochus Epiphanes — Eleazar 
and his Sons 477 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Tenth Epoch of Hebrew History, from A. D. 1 to A. D. 70 — Birth of Christ to the 
Fall of Jerusalem — Christ Born — Genealogy — Life of Christ — His Teachings — His 
Acts — Control — Deportment — Death — Resurrection — 40 Days' Teaching — His As- 
cension — Comforter (Paraklete) — History of the Jews to A. D. 70 — Disciples — Siege 
and Fall of Jerusalem ^ 505 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Eleventh Epoch of Hebrew History, from A. D. 70 to the Beginning of their Return 

— Times of the Gentiles — Christ's Predictions — Jews under Pagan Rome — Under 

Christian Rome — Under Papal Rome — Under Protestantism — Jews in England — 

Jews in Germany — In Switzerland — In Spain — In Denmark — Privileges Increasing 

523 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Twelfth Epoch of Hebrew History, from the Present to their Return and Nationali- 
zation in Palestine — Have they a National Future? — Prophecies, Gen. iii. 15., 
Deut. xxxii. 8. 9. — Promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — Isaiah — Jeremiah — 
Ezekiel — Daniel — Hosea — Amos — Zechariah — Jesus — Paul — John — Colonization 
Scheme , 538 

AMERICAN PHASE. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

i;^ew World — Agents — Why not Sooner Discovered ? — Its Location — Shape — Resources 
— Various Races — Which Shall Predominate? — First Settlement to the French and 
Indian War — Various States — Their Settlements — Puritans 563 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Birth Struggle of — Declaration — Surrender of Gen. Burgoyne — Campaigns of '76, 
'77, '78, '79, '80, '81 — Surrender at Yorktown — Various Nationalities — Constitution 
Seal of the United States — Administrations, 22, (1) George Washington, (2) Adams' 
Administration, (3) Jefferson's Administration, (4) Madison's Administration, (5) 
Monroe's Administration, (6) Adams' (J. Q.) Administration, (7) Jackson's Ad- 
ministration, (8) Van Buren's Administration, (9-10) Administrations of Harrison 
and Tyler, (11) Polk's Administration, (12-18) Administration of Taylor and Fill- 
more, (14) Pierce's Administration, (15) Buchanan's Administration, Preparations 
for a Rebellion, (16) Lincoln's Administration, War of the Rebellion, Causes of 
the War, (17) Johnson's Administration, (18) Grant's Administration (19) Hayes' 
Administration, (20-21) Administrations of Garfield and Arthur, (22) Cleveland's 
Administration — Presidents, of What Nationalities 601 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Summary — Egypt — Great Britain — Russia — Ottoman— Hebrew — American — Messianic — 
God's Purpose, Plans, as to the Earth — Colonization Scheme — Promises — Sons of 
Joseph — Messianic Enunciations — Great West — Manasseh — Conclusion — Coronation 
of Messiah — Restitution — Aspects of the Nations 639 



PREFACE. 



In presenting a new work to the public it is very proper that, with 
its introduction, there should be a brief statement, of its nature and 
mission. 

Its name (Eastern Question in its Various Phases) is indicative of 
its character and of the work designed to be accomplished. The " Eastern 
Question " is a world-wide topic. All eyes are turned towards the Orient 
in anticipation of the introduction of some great National Crisis. Nations 
are arming and making vast preparations for the coming struggle. With 
their lips they cry peace, but war is in their hearts. Coming events in- 
dicate WAR ; such is the general feeling among the world's rulers. States- 
men speak of Eastern complications, and their difficulties of any peaceable 
solution : still they seem to assume their ability to secure (by their own 
inherent powers) a final settlement of affairs satisfactory to all great 
national interests. The earth (say they) is ours, to manage and govern 
as may best suit our own pride and selfishness; each nation, however, 
seeking her own special aggrandizement. 

The removal of the Ottoman Empire from Europe, is the dream of 
Russia, while the powers of Western Europe see, in such an event, the 
final overthrow of their OAvn nationalities. Russia aims at Universal 
Empire, as indicated in the will of Peter the Great. The western powers 
are not in darkness relative to the intention of the "Northern Autocrat." 

In all the great national movements of to-day nothing is said by 
the Monarchs of any other than their own claims to the diadem of the 
world. Jehovah's claim is ignored. The right of Messiah to the Empire 
of the whole earth is not once named; and I^is people are not in any 
of their plans. 

The "Eastern Question" therefore, in the estimation of human rulers 
and in the purpose of Jehovah, is quite a different problem. 

To put this question on its proper base is the intention of this 
work. 

We have traced seven families from the days of the earliest prophe- 
cies, and have given the Divine record as to their location and work in 
the coming struggle. When the diadem was taken from the head of 

(IX) 



X PREFACE. 

Zedekiah there was to be a continued transfer by Jehovah who possesses 
the right to dispose of it as He sees fit, till He (His Son) should come 
whose right it is, to whom it shall be given. It was to be given to 
Gentile monarchies till the Heir to David's throne (Jesus the Messiah) 
should be ready to receive it from His Father. 

The Diadem went from the head of Zedekiah to the head of the King 
of Babylon. From that power it was removed to the Medo-Persian Power; 
then to the Grecian, and finally to the Roman and Romano-German. In 
this family it remains till Jehovah claims it for His Son. 

The " Eastern Question," in its true construction, concerns those 
events predicted by God's holy seers, the record of which is in the 
Bible. 

We have aimed to give those events a full and complete examina- 
tion. 

We have followed the one great Colonization Scheme, or the outward 
movement from the original centre ; have sketched the progressive coloni- 
zation of the world, closing with the view of the Western Hemisphere, 
and the gradual rise of a new people and a new Empire. 

We have called attention to the second movement, that of the Resti- 
tution. 

Our field of investigation is the world. The reign of Messiah is 
sketched and fully investigated. Our work must interest all classes of 
intelligent readers. It is a work for the Statesman, the Theologian and 
Philosopher. We do not fear criticism as to our subject : it is above 
human thought or purpose. It deals with the Divine purpose and plans 
relative to the Messiah, and the future of His territory and dominion. 
Read^ ponder, and act. 



THE 

EASTERN QUESTION 

ITS VARIOUS PHASES. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

The Eastern Question— Balance of Power— Questions— Another Form of the Eastern 
Question— Still Another Statement of the Problem — Points Involved in the 
Question — Europe and the East— Their Geographical Position — The Crescent 
and the Cross — The Circle Examined— Geographical Positions — Europe— Asia 
—Africa— The East Must be Renovated— An Outline of the Subject. 

Jehovah is abroad among the nations. His foot-prints are everywhere vis- 
ible. His voice is heard in the heavens, and the rushing of his chariot-wheels 
sounds along the cloud-pavements of his tempestuous highway. The elements 
of his wrath are gathering, soon to be discharged upon the corrupt world of 
mankind. His finger ia again seen writing upon the palace-walls of nobles, 
kings, and emperors. 

The masses are restless; a feverish excitement prevails. Many ai'e run- 
(/dng to and fro, and knowledge is increasing. Any unusual movement among 
the nations puts the world on tip-toe of expectation. 

God, as of old, is again showing his wonders in the land of Ham. He is 
collecting his forces to carry out his long predicted purposes. What mean 
these rapid developments? What bearing has this Egyptian uprising upon the 
Eastern Question? What location has it on the chart of prophecy? These 
problems we propose to investigate. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

An expression quite familiar, but who can define it? It maybe presump- 
tion in us to make an attempt at a definition; still, it requires some knowledge 
of the Eastern Question in order to describe satisfactorily its Egyptian phase, 
for it has a phase for every nation involved in its numerous and still unfolding 
complications; as many phases as there are peoples to be gathered to the com- 
ing struggle. Among its most noted phases we may reckon its English phase, 
its Russian phase, its Turkish phase, its Hebrew phase, its Egyptian phase, its 
Mohammedan phase, and last, but not least, its Christian phase. We shall 
give our definition of the Eastern Question in various forms that the reader 
may discern its complicated elements. Our definition is the following: 



THE EASTERN QUESTION, 



BALANCE OF POWER. 



How can the balance of power, now existing among the Western or Euro- 
pean nations, relative to their intercourse with the Oriental nations, such as 
India, China and Japan, be so protected and maintained as not to infringe upon 
their individual rights, privileges and interests, political, social and religious? 
The great Western world and the great Eastern world must interchange their 
physical products, also their manufactured articles. They must have very 
extended commercial intercourse. To do this there must be channels of commu- 
nication, highways by sea and land. How shall these national highways be 
managed? Who shall control them? The solution of these questions must 
involve the Eastern Question. 

What highways now exist? How, and by whom are they controlled, and 
managed? By what laws and regulations? These are elements of the Eastern 
Question. This question will be more fully explained by considering the fol- 
lowing 

• 

QUESTIONS. 

1. What national highways between Europe and the Orient now exist? 

2. Who now control, or are the custodians of these great Eastern high- 
ways? 

3. If the Sultan is deposed, who shall accomplish that task, and what 
nation shall fill his responsible office? 

4. Shall Russia or England control those highways? 

5. If neither, shall Russia manage the northern channel and England the 
southern? 

6. Shall they be held and operated conjointly? 

7. Or shall they be strictly neutral, but under the care of a new custo- 
dian, who shall (ofiicially) manage them? 

8. Who shall be that custodian or commission nation? 

These problems are parts of the great Eastern Question which we propose 
to consider. 

AXOTHER FORM OP THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

Another form of the Eastern Question is the following: 
What position shall. each nation occupy in the coming struggle? What 
shall be its military status? 

Another question arises: How can there be a free commercial intercourse 
between the East and the West without bringing on a conflict between the 
Crescent and the Cross? How can either Jesus or Mohammed put on the dia- 
dem of the world without an entire subversion of the present order of things? 
Both classes of religionists are expecting their chief to establish universal 
dominion. Which shall conquer? What shall be the nature of the struggle? 
Such questions as these must claim our attention. 

STILL ANOTHER STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 

Allow us to give another statement of the Eastern problem. What shall 
be done with the Turkish empire and its territory in order to restrain the Rus- 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 



sian bear from devouring the national flesh of Asia, and thus causing ruin to 
the Eastern interests of all Western Europe ? 

For a century the Western nations have been anticipating the dissolution 
of the Ottoman empire (the empire of "The sick ma.n'"— Voltaire.) How can 
that empire be sustained? Or, if it must fall, what disposition shall be made 
of its territory? 

The geographical position of Russia, and also of Austria favors the idea 
of its absorption by those two powers. How can the West prevent this catas- 
trophe? Or, if the Turkish empire cannot be held in being as a check to Rus- 
sian aggression, by what other means can Western Europe protect her own 
interests? 

The British and Russian empires, with equal areas, (8,000,000 square miles 
each) seem designed to head two great national confederacies, which from 
their geographical position maybe termed, Northern and Southern, and in pro- 
phetic language, " King of the South," and " King of the North." This outline 
will be filled out as we advance. Take notice, however, that the empire of the 
"False Prophet" has its location in the great conflict. Rev. xvi, 8; xix, 20— 
Mohammedan empire as we have taught for twenty-five years. 

POINTS INVOLVED IN THE QUESTION. 

The Eastern Question involves the entire international communications 
of the West with the great East. In its full extent America would not be 
excluded, though in its ordinary meaning Europe and Asia, with a part of Africa 
include all the territory particularly interested. We propose to consider the 
following questions, which will develop the jmncipal elements of the great 
Eastern Problem and fix the position which each nation is to occupy in the 
approaching contest. 

1. We shall consider their geographical position. 

2. We shall sketch the vastness and the variety of their products. 

3. The immense power involved in the interchange of these products. 

4. We shall examine their channels of communication— national high- 
ways. 

5. Their limited number and contracted form require greater activity in 
the exchange. 

6. The qualifications in the custodian and exchange-merchant to manage 
efficiently these channels of communication. 

7. We shall show the incompetency of the present occupants, the Sultan 
of Turkey, and the Khedive of Egypt, his Viceroy. 

8. God is educating and prej^aring one to fill this high station. 

9. How and by whom are the present custodians to be removed? 

10. How shall this new custodian be inducted into his office? 

11. What position shall each nation occupy in the coming struggle? 
Such is the outline of the subjects we propose to investigate. 

^ In doing so we shall strive, in as few words as practicable, to show the 
political, social, and religious aspects of the Eastern Question; and, more partic- 
ularly to point out the future of Egypt and Turkey. 



4 THE EASTERN QXJBSTION, 

I.— EUROPE AND THE EAST— THEIR GEOGRAPH- 
ICAL POSITION. 

Under this head we shall consider their size and their reiatve position, 
with such other points as may illustrate our subject. 

Touching the great sea (Mediterranean) are the three grand divisions, 
Europe on the north, Africa south, and Asia on the East. An oblong basin of 
brine, with sides and rim composed of semi-continents. Let us examime this 
noted territory. 

THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. 

Set one foot of the compass at Jerusalem, and with the length of that sea 
as a radius, describe a circle. Through this centre draw two diameters, cut- 
ting each other at right angles. The four extremities will represent the four 
cardinal points, north, south, west and east. From the east point, with the 
same radius, describe an arch, having its extremities in the circumference of 
the circle. You have a circle, a crescent and a cross, symbols of the two 
great religions of the world. 

Within the circle are included the localities of the noted events of man's 
history; the place of his birth; the garden of Eden; the empires of Egypt 
and ancient Israel under Solomon; the territories of the four Gentile morarch- 
ies, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome; and the land of the future 
restored Israel. The crescent includes the empires of China and Japan (prin- 
cipally) and contains nearly one-half the population of the globe. With this 
circle and its crescent we are now concerned, as they include the territory 
principally involved in the Eastern Question. 

THE CIRCLE EXAMINED. 

Let us examine this circle. Europe occupies its north-west quadrant. 
Its north-east quadrant contains Babylonia and Persia; its south-east quadrant 
has Arabia; its south-west quadrant contains Egypt and Carthage. Each 
quadrant has had its noted empire, and its interesting historic record. In 
the crescent is the Mongolian family, on a territory of surpassing interest. 
Clustering about this mid-earth sea is the national swarm. The principal 
nations of the globe either occupy its coasts or navigate its waters, the high- 
way between the West and the East, This water highway has three princi- 
pal gates: 1. The channel or ocean outlet. 2. Dardanelles. 3. Through 
Egypt by the Suez canal. These are water outlets for ships of commerce. 

This water highway between Europe and the West, and the Orient, 
extends east and west, occupying the southern part of the northern temperate 
zone, extending from latitude 30:^° to latitude 42°. It is the zone of human 
intellect; the belt of empires, where man attains his highest development. 

Within the area of our circle, and about its middle belt of waters cluster 
those nations that are so deeply interested in the solution of the Eastern 
Problem; all striving to gain their full share of the immense wealth of India, 
China and Japan, with their adjacent islands. 

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS EUROPE. 

In this circle of human action, physical, social, moral, and political, let us 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 5 

again take a view of the geographical positions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
with tlieir environed sea. Europe occupies her northern sea coast with all its 
lakes, rivers, gulfs and bays, and it is crowded with dense masses of the Cau- 
casian race, the most active, intellectual, and fully developed of the human 
family; actively occupied with all human knowledge and all industrial pur- 
suits. With a territory of the same extent as that of our Republic, it has a 
population of 302,000,000. The products ot the soil cannot feed its inhabi- 
tants, while its manufactories are far in advance of her home demands. Europe 
therefore, must have an outlet for her surplus productions. It is properly 
denominated the world's commercial metropolis. Its vessels are on every 
ocean, in every sea of both hemispheres. Europe looks eastward for a large 
portion of its territory. 

ASIA — AFRICA. 

Examine the map of Asia, especially that part of it within our circle and 
its crescent. With a population of 700,000,000, its soil cannot feed the 
masses. It must look to other countries for some of its provisions. If this 
Asiatic belt had an European population, circumstances would have quite 
another aspect. But with races without intelligence or industry, poverty and 
want must follow. Much of the Asiatic soil is uncultivated and waste. Its 
moral, social, and political conditions compare favorably with its physical 
state. They all require renovation by associating with the active and intelli- 
gent West. 

Our circle includes all of Africa that has any historical record. Take 
from that grand division, Egypt, and those states along the Mediterranean, 
once included in the empire of Carthage, Rome's rival, and nothing remains 
but semi-barbarous tribes. 

THE EAST MUST BE RENOVATED. 

Asia was once enlightened with the gospel, but long since its light was 
extinguished, and its Christian lamp-stand removed. In these Eastern move- 
ments God has evidently one purpose, while man's intention is actuated by 
other views. It is quite evident, however, that God, as of old, rules among 
the nations, and all that he has uttered by the prophets will certainly be 
accomplished. The nations will rapidly be mustered into the places to fulfil 
their divine commissions. Lord hasten the day. 

In the preceding pages we have given an outline of the subject. It will 
be readily seen by the readers of the "Coming Age," that the present volume 
will be supplementary to that extended topic. The following pages will 
afford abundant evidence of its nature and proximity. Though the future 
brings to view two ages, the reign of subjugation, (for, "He must reign till he 
hath jjut all enemies under his feet," during which Christ is performing the 
work of his regal office;) the joint reign where Father and son reign together, 
as on the new earth; yet, we have called it one age, since it is the age of Mes- 
siah, he being personally present under each reign, and their Maker. 



CHAPTER II. 

Question Stated — ISTational Eivals— England and Russia — J!^oted Powers of Approach- 
ing Conflict — Policy and Movements— Triple Empire— Egypt — The Turkish 
or Ottoman Empire— What We Must Keep in View — The Eastern Question and 
Its Various Complications— "The Time of the End. "—Egypt— Arabia— Geo- 
graphical Aspects of Arabia— The People of Arabia —Job— Indolence of Arabs 
— The Prophet of Arabia— Is Arabia Within the Boundaries of the Future Land 
of Israel?— What are the Boundaries of the Euture Land of Israel?— Moham- 
med's Early Life.— From His Marriage A. d. 598 to His Flight From Mecca to 
Medina A. D 622— From the Time of His Fight to the Conquest of Arabia 
A. D. 630. 

QUESTION STATED. 

We have attempted to define the "Eastern Question," We shall keep 
that problem before our readers, since it is the absorbing theme of the present 
and near future. We shall clothe it with a variety of costumes to suit the 
various phases. 

In its broadest signification it is the following: How can the West 
secure an extended intercourse with the East, without any hindrance from 
the North? In its common acceptation, and in a more restricted sense, we 
define it as follows: How shall the nations of Western Europe, especially 
England and France, and, more particularly England, deal with, control, and 
dispose of the Turkish Empire and its territory, as best to promote its inter- 
ests, political, social, and religious, and make the most effectual barrier 
against the advances and aggressions of Russia, with her great Northern Con- 
federacy of kings? How can she best keep her Eastern channels of commu- 
nication open and free? 

NATIONAL RIVALS ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

England and Russia, with equal territories (8,000,000 square miles each,) 
head two great national confederacies. The latter holds Northeastern Europe 
and Northern Asia, while the former controls the larger portion of South- 
ern and southeastern Asia. Between these Northern and Southern Empires 
is located the Ottoman, or Turkish Empire, or in a prophetic sense, the Empire 
of the False Prophet. The Southern, and the Turkish empires, are situ- 
ated in the zone of empires; the Russian Confederacy lies north of that belt, 
yet with her face and her cannon turned southward. The Russian bear is not 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 7 

content with his winter home. He dreams of, and longs for the sunny south. 
He anticipates the day when his banners shall wave over the proud capital of 
the old Greek Empire; when the golden horn shall be his, and the Dardanelles 
shall be guarded by his own cannon, when having annihilated the Turkish 
Empire or driven it beyond the ancient boundry, the Euphrates, he shall stand 
face to face before the southern lion; the lion and the bear; and the Babe of 
Bethlehem shall rule them; an event to the Christian, anticipated with exceed- 
ing joy. 

NOTED POWERS OF APPROACHING CONFLICTS. 

The Northern, Southern and Middle Empires, are the noted powers of 
approaching national conflicts. Their interests are diverse, socially, religiously 
and politically. The national interests of the Ottoman Empire look, rather 
towards England than to Russia. It is the policy of England to sustain the 
Turkish Empire, that of the northern confederacy to pull it down. England 
has no mission at Constantinople, nor in the north. Russia desires to locate 
her seat of empire in that ancient capital of the Caesars, and hold the territory 
of the Greek Empire, while England desires to hold the Ottoman as a rampart 
against the king of the north. 

The British mission lies south and east of her northern rival. The circle 
and the zone are the fields of her enterprises. Northern Asia is too icy for the 
British lion. He will find it to his national interest, thei'efore, to protect the 
Sultan till he fully matures his southern and eastern schemes of imperial gran- 
deur. 

POLICY AND MOVEMENTS. 

The Eastern problem has its solution in the policy and movements of this 
triple Empire. Its policy and acts we design to follow. Whatever, therefore, 
has a bearing upon the relative operations of England, Russia and Turkey, 
will form a step in the solution of the Eastern Question, which is our specialty. 

Have we symbols for these three powers? Let us examine the Apocalypse. 
In Rev. xvi, 13, 14, we have the following: "And I saw three unclean spirits 
like frogs (come) out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the 
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of 
devils (demons), woi'king miracles, (which) go forth unto the kings of the 
earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of 
God Almighty." 

TRIPLE EMPIRE. 

This triple empire is an embodiment of all the nationalities arrayed 
against the Messiah and his kingdom. The dragon, the beast (fourth beast of 
Dan. vii,) and the false prophet, are satan's field-marshals, having control of 
his grand army in the battle of Armageddon. In that host are mustered all the 
votaries of false gods and false religions; the dragon being a symbol of the 
pagan family under the king of the north, the beast and his family, including 
the Western Romano-German nations, and the false prophet, the Mohammedan 
world. Under these three banners will be gathered all the enemies of the 
cross. 



8 THi; EASTBEN QUESTION, 

The unity and perspecuity of our subject (the Eastern Question), and the 
clear understanding of the divine Word demand that we present this triple 
empire under all its phases and bearings. To do this satisfactorily to the 
reader, the motives which inspire the movements of these three anti-christian 
powers, as well as the plans of Jehovah, in thus opening the way for the be- 
ginning of the triumphant reign of Christ, His beloved Son, must be fully 
developed and critically explained. 

EGYPT. 

Egypt, is simply a subordinate element of the Turkish Empire, though pro- 
phecy requires in her great changes. Prime motive powers of the triple 
empire. Erase Japan, China, and the East Indies from Eastern and Southei'n 
Asia, and the kings of the north and of the South might drink their wines 
quietly at the same table; the objects of their jealousies being removed. The 
boundless wealth of the Orient excites the cupidity of England and Russia. 
The king of the north, as the sovereign of Northern Asia, aims to divert the 
immense resources of those eastern nations into more northern channels, and 
thus rob the southern empire of its eastern wealth. The king of the south, 
penetrating his designs, forecasts his devices to defeat the grasping plots of 
the northern foe. He handles Turkey as the Chinese wall of Western Asia. 

In consequence of the mutual jealousies of the northern and southern con- 
federacies, guided by Russia and England, the Turkish Empire has been, and 
still continues to be, the custodian of the channels of communication between 
the East and the West. Through that empire the products of the East must 
pass of necessity. 

Questions here arise whose answers are complicated: 

First, Is the Sultan an intelligent, and a safe custodian? 

Second, Could these channels be safely used without a custodian? 

Third, If not, what nation can supply its place? 

Fourth, Is God educating a nation to fill that office? 
In forecasting the future let us investigate the three parts (Turkey, Russia 
and England) of this triple empire. 1. The Ottoman Empire, its past, present 
and future. In doing this we shall outline her history, sacred and profane. 
(1.) What has God said of this empire? (2.) What has been accomplished? 
(3.) What part of her prophetic history is still futuKe? 

THE TURKISH, OE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 

in its relation to prophecy may not be fully understood. We have come to 
such a conclusion from the terras applied to it by expositors. It is called, very 
generally, "The great river Euphrates." This we shall examine in our outline 
history of that empire. Writers follow the reigning dynasty rather than the 
empire. This view leads to a rather erroneous construction of the prophecies. 
The prophetic symbols of the four Gentile monarchies point to the monarchies 
themselves and not to their various dynasties, or ruling families. Each king- 
dom had many dynasties. Families become extinct, while the government is 
perpetuated. In this triple empire of the .great day what a vast variety of 
dynasties are included in the fourth kingdom. The same is equally true of its 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 9 

dragonic element. Why, then, should the empire of the false prophet, the 
third of the triple empire, be limited to the Turkish dynasty? 

WHAT WE MUST KEEP IN VIEW. 

We must keep in view the history of each of the four monarchies, as they 
existed under various ruling families. With the Babylonian and Persian em- 
pires we are not now to write. Still we may say that the Persian Empire 
was composed of two very distinct people — the Medes and the Persians; each 
being composed of many dynasties. This is true of the fourth monarchy. It 
had its pure iron, and its iron and clay mixture. The fourth beast had the 
Grecian brass. Since the empire had its origin in Mohammed, the prophet, we 
should call his empire after his name rather than after either of his dynasties, 
Saracenic, or Turkish. It is properly the empire of the false prophet; still in 
prophetic language, it is the perpetuation of the Macedonian Empire — the 
third kingdom of Daniel. On a certain territory a kingdom was erected. The 
first is called Babylon. On another distinct territory a second was erected; 
this we call Medo-Persia. On a third location a third kingdom grew up, 
called Greece, or Macedonia. This had its former and latter times. The Moham- 
medan Empire has occupied this territory for the last four centuries. It is 
not a fifth universal monarchy, but the perpetuation of the third monarchy. 
We use the term Turkish or Ottoman dynasty of the Mohammedan Empire, the 
perpetuation of the Greek Empire or empire of the false prophet — the 
religious element predominating, and, therefore, carrying the name. Christ 
said my kingdom is not of this world rov uoffjxov Mohammed's is of this world 
rov KOGjJLOV — a royal high priesthood; it is proper, therefore, that this 
should constitute a part of the triple empire. The lessons taught us in what 
we have here stated, is simply this: the overthrow or driving back of the Turk- 
ish dynasty is not of necessity, the annihilation of the domination of the false 
prophet, since another dynasty (Arabian or Saracenic) might arise to sustain 
the creesento 

With these as introductory, before us, we are prepared to sketch the his- 
tory of the empire itself. Mohammed, early in life, formed the design of giving 
to his nation (the Arabian), and through it to the world, a new religion. He 
was soon led to see that this could not be accomplished by moral suasion. He 
saw that the national government must first be removed. His motto was, The 
Koran, tribute or the sword. 

His own country fell before his fanatical arm; Syria was then added to 
his dominion. Conquests now followed with great rapidity. The caliphs, his 
succesors, extended his empire over nearly all the east, south, north and into 
the more distant west. 

For the benefit of those readers who have not seen the history of the em- 
pire of the false prophet in the "Coming Age," we subjoin the following 
sketch of Mohammed and his empire, since a clear understanding of this ele- 
ment of the triple empire of Rev. xvi, 13 is necessary to a proper comprehen- 
sion of our subject. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION ITS VARIOUS COMPLICATIONS. 

We have already stated that the Eastern Question is our specialty. Our 



10 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

reasons for so doing will appear as we progress. In attempting to solve this 
problem we shall be obliged to examine its principal phases, and its various 
complications. If, at times, we seem obscm-e, and deficient in method, the 
reader must overlook these weaknesses. So many thoughts press their claims 
to precedence, that, like recruits, it is a severe task to keep them in rank or 
under any proper and necessary discipline. Too numerous to count — their 
name is legion. A few specimens will illustrate our difficulties. We cannot 
take our pen to compose without such thoughts crowding for utterance as the 
following: 

"the time of the end." 

We are evdently living at the "Time of the end." Who ever saw the 
world in such a bustle as at present? No walking about. All are in haste; 
running to and fro, as if they had something vital to do or to communicate. 
No sooner is one invention legally patented than it is thrown aside by one 
superior. We must be down among the shadows of the last days. Time flies; 
who can discern the next scene in the world's great drama? Is it the advent 
Is it the rapture? Who, then, will be taken? Where taken? How long in 
the heavens? What will the nations be about during that time? Is the world 
in the condition predicted at Christ's return? Where is the Hebrew nation? 
Are not its elements still among all nations? Who will gather Judah and 
Israel? We know Judah by his face; but where is Israel? What is his other 
name? Is it Saxon? Is it Britain, or German? What is the mission of 
England? What the position of the United States? Position of Russia? 
Position of Britain in the coming contest? What will be the fate of the Otto- 
man dynasty? What will be the position of Germany, France, Spain, Austria 
and Italy? What are the three angels? The three unclean spirits? The Dragon? 
The Beast? The False Prophet? What shall be the fate of the Mohammedan 
Empire? The fate of the Dragon? Of the Beast? Where will the Russian 
army fall? Will it be composed of all the Eastern idolatrous nations? What 
is the Euphrates of Rev. xvi, 12? Who are the kings of the east? What is 
mystic Babylon? What three systems of false religions control the three em- 
pires of Satan's triple empire? What countries will be united with Palestine 
in Israel's restored nationality? Will Egypt be in that nationality? Will 
Assyria be one of its parts? Will the British lion be there? Who gathers 
the powers to the battle of that great day? Will Japan, China and India be 
gathered to the final onset in the army of the Dragon? Will the emperor of 
Russia command them? In what order will the false systems of religion be 
overthrown? Will it be inversely as their light; the great apostasy first, then 
the crescent, and last paganism? Do not Rev. xvii, xviii, xix, and xx, teach 
that order? 

EGYPT. 

Egypt is a part of the Turkish or Ottoman dynasty of the Mohammedan 

Empire, partaking, however, more of the Arabian or Saracenic dynasty, than 

^ of the Ottoman. Her population and her religion are principally Arabian. 

The Mohammedan Empire is founded upon the union of church and state; the 

altar, however, rules the throne. What position will Egypt occupy in the ap- 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 11 

preaching contest? This will be examined and answered in its pi'oper order. 
For a new prophet, a new religion and a new Empire, it was necessary to 
select a new territory; one outside of the boundaries of the four Gentile mon- 
archies. Such a land was found in the Arabian peninsula, inhabited by a peo- 
ple dwelling alone and free. This country was wisely selected to be the home 
of this extraordinary people and religioM of this remarkable empii-e. 

We shall now describe the land, the people and the prophet, his religion 
and his empire, as it existed under himself, his caliphs constituting the Ara- 
bian or Saracenic dynasty; and under the Sultans which formed the Turkish 
or Ottoman dynasty of the Mohammedan Empire. 

ARABIA. 

1. Arabia is a name variously derived. It is derived by some from Araba 
— level waste. Such is not Arabia. Others say it comes from Eber — wan- 
derer — same meaning and derivation as the word Hebrew. Others derive it 
from the Hebrew word Arab — to go down — since Arabia was towards the go- 
ing down of the sun to the inhabitants on the Euphrates. The Hebrew word 
Arabah — barren place — would suit part of Arabia. 

Allow us to add another derivative to the above list. The Hebrew verb 
^"^^ (a-rav), He lay in wait, hid, concealed himself, entrapped, seized, rushed 
upon, plotted, devised evil. Deut. xix, 11; Job xxxi, 8; Jer. li, 12. Hence, 
also, we have ^'^5^ (a-rev) a den, lurking place. So likewise, ("^2*1^^ (areb-beh) 
locust, the most ravenous and destructive insect. The noun ^'^^ {a-rav a-rab) 
is applied to the inhabitants of Arabia because they, like wild beasts, always 
lie in wait to seize upon their prey. Jos. xv, 52. Arabia is the original home 
of the locust. It is the Arabian or Locustian peninsula. One of the Egyj:)- 
tian plagues originated in central Arabia. Ex. x, 13, 14. 

GEOGKAPHICAIi ASPECTS OP ARABIA. 

Arabiaa peninsula, triangular in shape, in length 1,500 miles, and half that 
in width, containing 1,200,000 square miles, and a population of about 4,000,- 
000. An oblong basin, with two-thirds of its rim well watered, fertile, and 
abundant in its various productions, while the vessel itself is full 'of mountains, 
rocks and sands, driven by the deadly simoon. Above is the cloudless sky 
and the burning sun. It is like the apple of Sodom; without fair, but within, 
full of dust and sand; the original home of the horse, the camel and the locust, 
which last has given the country its name. It is the land of "the terrible 
wilderness." 

Without one navigable river, or any railway, its internal commerce is car- 
ried on camels, "the ships of the desert." That country composed of rocks, 
tempestuous sands, and a waste howling wilderness has been a theater where 
the God of Israel has exhibited his wondrous acts, and his immutable pur- 
poses. It has its Sinai, where the law was given to Moses amidst lightnings 
and thunders, voice of the trumpet. It has its horrible wilderness, God's school 
house where he instructed and disciplined his people for the space of forty 
years. It is the home of Mohammed, who, with the Koran in one hand, and 
the sword in the other, pierced and demolished the thrones of idolatry both in 



12 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the heathen world, and among the nations of apostate Christianity. It is the 
original seat of a religion and an empire which spread over and conquered the 
Eastern world, has stood the shocks of more than twelve centuries; and which 
now has a church of 180,000,000 of most fanatical, zealous and devoted mem- 
bers. Who cannot trace the divine foot-steps among the nations? 

THE PEOPLE OF ARABIA, 

2. The inhabitants of Arabia are as remarkable as the country itself. It 
was at first the land of Cush. They, passing away, were succeeded by the 
family of Shem, Ishmael being only a naturalized citizen at a later date, "Ara- 
bicized." It was first settled by Joktan, grandson of Shem. His family being 
pure Arabs; the descendants of Ishmael "are held to be only Arabicized." 
Joktan's thirteenth son was called Job-ab, a name compounded from Job and 
Ab — father. Father Job. Of Job we have a history in the Bible, and a book 
called after his name, the book of Job. 

JOB. 

Job was an Arabian prince; and from tradition and scraps of history it 
would appear that he, with his flocks, as a shepherd prince, made his way into 
Egypt, and under the express instructions of Jehovah, superintended the build- 
ing of the Great Pyramid, the sign in Egypt and wonder of the last days. 
Should it be established that Job is the Melchisedec, it will add much to the 
Arabian character since Job, in point of character is ranked with Noah and 
Daniel. Many Noble families in Arabia now boast of being descendants from 
Job, and also carry the same name. 

The land itself of Arabia, as well as of all other countries, has 
much to do in forming the character oi its inhabitants. They form two 
classes, the settled population, dwelling in towns and cities, and cultivators of 
the soil, and the Bedouins, or the roving inhabitants of the desert. 

INDOLENCE OF ARABS. 

Industry and enterprise are not Arabian attributes. An author remarks: 
"Arabia is the anti-industrial central point in the world." Should we make 
the habitable globe with its moving masses a vast circular area, revolving 
around one common center, the Arabian would occupy that center while the 
Anglo-Saxon race would rapidly revolve near its circumference. Socially and 
morally they have been standing still for forty centuries, or at least from the 
days of Abraham. 

The nomadic Arabs are Ishmaelites, the descendants of Keturah. They 
have but little resemblance to the citizen descendants of Joktan. The country 
of Arabia has never been fully subjugated by either of the four Gentile 'uon- 
archies. This has been owing partly to their independent tribal existence, but 
more particularly their physical ramparts. No army can subsist in the sandy 
wilds of the interior. Prophecy indicates vast changes in the land, and also in 
the people of Arabia. What changes will be shown as we advance. To 
the future, therefore, we postpone this division of our subject. 

THE PROPHET OF ARABIA. 

3. Mohammed's introduction to the outer world, was sudden and very 



egyptiajST phase. 13 

extraordinary. All the east had fallen before the armies of Chosroes, the great 
king (of Persia) whose power and external pomp far exceeded those of Solo- 
mon. In the midst of his glory, when intoxicated with his own splendor, as a 
denii-god, a letter was handed him from an obsure resident of Mecca, com- 
manding him to receive Mohammed as the prophet and apostle of God. 
Mohammed then uttered this prediction, (the epistle being torn into fragments 
and thi-owninto the Karasoo river) "It is thus that God will tear the kingdom, 
and reject the supplications of Chosroes." This prediction was soon accom- 
plished by Heraclius, the Greek emperor. 

Who was this prophet that dared to utter such lofty aspirations? Moham- 
med the Arabian. Let us glance at his early years. Mohammed (the glori- 
fied) surnamed Aboul Cassem, was born at Mecca, the 10th of November, A. 
D. 570. He was descended from the tribe of Koreisk, the noblest and the 
most powerful in Arabia. His parents dying in his early childhood, he Avas 
placed under the care of his uncle, Abu Taleb, by whom he received the kind- 
est attention. 

IS ARABIA WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE FUTURE LAND OP ISRAEL? 

Is Arabia within the bondaries of the future land of Israel? So says 
Keith in his "Land of Israel." Snch is also the view of Major Scott Phillips, 
of London, in his "Curious and Original Discoveries, Concerning the Re-settle- 
ment of the Seed of Abraham in Syria and Arabia, with Mathematical and 
Geographical Scripture Proofs." Do the prophets teach that view? If Ara- 
bia is a part of the land of Israel, difficulties are obviated, and great results 
must follow. 

WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OP THE FUTURE LAND OP ISRAEL? 

To the law and to the testimony let us appeal. What extent of territory 
did God deed to Israel? Let us examine the language and the sj)irit of the 
deed. The deed was originally executed to the seed (Christ). Then Abra- 
ham is included; after that the names of Isaac and Jacob are written in the 
deed; it then includes all of Abraham's seed by faith, and the whole earth is 
the deeded possession. This, it is conceeded is the land promised to Christ 
for his Hebrew and Gentile children, but our present inquiry simply reaches 
the land to be allotted to the future Judah and Israel after their return. 
What are its boundaries? Its western limit is the Great Sea. How far does 
it extend north, east and south? These are disputed points, in Ezek. xlvii, lo- 
ss, and xlviii, 1-3.5. The northern and southern boundaries extend to the Eu- 
phrates and to the Red Sea as will appear from Gen. xv, 18; Ex. xxiii, 31; 
Deut. xi, 24 and Chro. ix, 25. The question in dispute is the eastern boun- 
dary; is it the Dead Sea or the Sea of Oman? When it is fully settled that 
the future laud of Israel extends from the Euphrates and Lebanon on the 
north to the Red Sea on the south, and that the Mediterranean Sea extends 
along its entire western limit, the Dead Sea would be a very contracted and 
imperfect boundary for its entire eastern limit. The Sea of Oman occupies 
the entire east, and is the uttermost sea of Deut. xi, 24; and the east sea of 
Ezek. xlvii, 18. These boundaries include the peninsula of Arabia. The land 
of Israel would then contain 1,230,000 square miles. One district in China 



14 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

containing 210,000 square miles has a population of one hundred and eighty 
millions (180,000,000). Let the land of Israel be as densely populated, and it 
would contain about one billion of inhabitants, or more than three-fourths of 
the present population of the globe; ample room. 

Mohammed's eaelt life. 

The reason for dwelling upon the life of Mohammed and his new system 
of religion, and also upon the empire which he founded, is obvious; that 
empire, originating with the "False Prophet," and partaking of that new relig- 
ious element, is one of the three empires which constitute satan's triple or 
trinity empire in the approaching conflict: Rev. xvi, 12-15. These elementary 
empires cannot be too familiar to the reader; since, under their three leaders, 
all the powers of satan (the Antichrist) are combined. 

The early years of Mohammed were occupied with that severe disciplinej 
which was designed to give him success in his future mission. Though of the 
priestly tribe, his family being exceedingly poor, was without influence. It 
was, however, a means of giving to the early reflections of Mohammed a pious 
turn. It was at an extraordinary period in the religious world. Three dis- 
tinct systems of theology were then being taught in Arabia, and especially at 
Mecca, his native city, viz: the Sabean system, the Jewish system and the 
Christian system. The Sabean, the religion of Arabia, was the worship of the 
heavenly bodies. Its power over the intelligent, outside of the priesthood, 
had long since become obsolete. The Jewish system, originating in God's 
promises to the fathers, and reduced to system under Moses, was taught in 
the Hebrew colonies that had settled in northern Arabia after the overthrow 
of their commonwealth by Titus. The unity of God was there distinctly 
taught. The Christian system then taught in Arabia, came from Abyssinia 
and the Greek Empire, and was exceedingly corrupt, it being full of images 
and saint worship. Pure Christianity was, to Mohammed, an utter stranger. 
A vast amount of religious material was placed before Mohammed out of 
which to form a new system. 

On the business of his uncle he was called to mingle with Jewish and 
Christian communities. He had joined himself to those of his own country- 
men who had renounced Sabeanism; had listened to the expositions of Moses' 
laws, and had acquired some knowledge of apostate Christianity. Such, how- 
ever, was his poverty that no innovation was attempted till after his marriage, 
at the age of 28 years, A. D. 598. 

FEOM HIS MARRIAGE (A. D. 598) TO HIS PLIGHT FROM MECCA JO 
MEDINA (a. D. 622). 

Commencement of the Hegira. — This may be called the formative or 
constructive period; since during this period the materials which had been pre- 
viously coll'^cted, were systematically arranged, a new religion, sustained by 
the sword, was organized. It was a period of birth-throes during which the 
Arabian world was struggling to give birth to a new religious empire. We 
say religious, for that empire is the embodiment of religion and the sword; the 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 16 

union of church and state; the only empire that ever originated in the mind of 
one calling himself a prophet. Four years were occupied in making forty con- 
verts. Mohammed found it a severe task to remove from the Arabian mind 
its old religious ideas; and still more difficult so to prepare it as to germinate 
and give a vigorous growth to an exotic flora, such as suited his new religious 
thoughts. Gi'eat opposition sprang up as the number of his disciples multi- 
plied. It was finally resolved that Mohammed should be put to death. To 
divide their guilt it was determined that one from each tribe (for each tribe 
was independent) should drive a dagger into the heai't of the prophet. Mo- 
hammed, informed of the conspiracy, fled from Mecca to a cave in its vicinity, 
and finally reached Medina, sixteen days' journey to the south. 

EEGM THE TIME OF HIS PLIGHT TO THE CONQUEST OP ARABIA (a. D. 630). 

By calling the period just described, formative, we do not wish to be un- 
derstood that it includes the time of its growth. Like the tender scion, that 
shoots its head above the earth, continuing to grow upward, and to expand 
till it attains to full maturity, so was it with the Mohammedan Empire under 
Mohammed and his successors. At Medina his faithful gathered around him 
in numbers that soon became formidable. They learned his doctrines, and 
partook of his indomitable spirit. They were not to dispute for their creed 
but by the sword. This raode of propagating his doctrines suited the Ara- 
bians, and for the first time in the history of that country, all the tribes sub- 
mitted to be gathered into an empire. His armies increased. 

Paradise. — He taught his followers, who were all soldiers, to look for a 
sensual paradise. Success or even bravery, would be rewarded with sensual 
felicity here and hereafter. They rushed to the charge with a supernatural 
impetuosity, and courted death as the passport to the climes of immortal bliss. 
Christ and Mohammed have often been compared, but between them and their 
religious systems there is no analogy. Their coirtrasts, however, are worthy 
of particular notice. 

Christ and Mohammed Contrasted. — Jesus was the prince of peace; Mo- 
hammed that of the sword. By Christ the smoking flax was not quenched; by 
Mohammed, the sword was his prime minister The gospel of the Son of God 
is a system of love and peace; that of Mohammed is one of pure selfishness 
and revenge. Contrast, if you i^lease, the Koran with Christ's sermon on the 
mount; the one breathes the spirit of a loving brotherhood; the other hatred; 
the one is of the earth, eai'thy; the other is of the Lord from heaven. Under 
his banner of the Cresent the Arabian tribes in A. D. 629-30 were all subju- 
gated and united into a religious empire of irrisistible warriors. 

FROM the formation OF HIS EMPIRE TO HIS DEATH, A. D. 682. 

The union of such independent elements as composed the Arabian tribes 
was a grand achievement. Their national combination under a new religion 
and a new standard indicated a divine agency. To breathe into this new 
organic structure a vitality of more than twelve centuries, proves a higher 
agency than that of Mohammed. The period of this national birth shows it 
was raised up for a special work; and that it will continue till that work is 



16 THE EASTERN QUESTION", 

accomplished. It was at a period of gross idolatry, when Mohammed was 
sent forth to found his Unitarian Empire. That empire was founded upon two 
propositions; the one a cardinal truth (There is but one God); the other a 
cardinal falsehood (Mohammed is his prophet — apostle). To erect an empire 
upon such a foundation required the sword; and it was used freely. The em- 
pire of the false prophet had a universal mission; it must necessarily be 
aggressive. Mohammed aimed to make Jerusalem the chief seat of his altar 
and his throne; to that end he ordered his armies into Syria. 

Mohammed was a Warrior. — He fought in person at nine battles. The 
sword he called the "key of heaven and hell;" a drop of blood shed 
in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months 
of fasting or prayer; whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven; at the 
day of Judgment his wounds shall be resj)lendent as vermilion, and 
as odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the 
wings of angels and cherubim. Such instructions infused into his soldiers a 
fearless and an unconquered zeal. 

The holy banner was again unfurled, and three thousand faithful warriors 
marched under it for the conquest of Syria. At the severely contested battles 
of Muta, fought by the Arabs or Saracens (robbers of the desert), and the 
Greek Christians under the emperor Heraclius was the first contest between 
the Cresent and the Cross. Since, that bloody conflict how many millions 
have fallen under those blood-stained banners, and will fall till the victorious 
banner of the King of kings and Lord of lords shall wave in triumph over a 
subjugated world. Lord, hasten that day of triumph. In the midst of his 
Syrian conquests, at the age of sixty-three years, Mohammed was called to 
meet the angel of death (A. D. 632). Here closed the life of the great high- 
priest of this rapidly expanding empire of Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia, 
after founding a new religion, (the Mohammedan) and kingdom. 

LAND OP ISRAEL FERTILIZED. 

Prelude. — By what agencies, and in what manner shall it be accom- 
plished? Water, combined with some othei* power, is admitted to be the 
chief agent of its increased fertility; but whence the water, and how applied 
we propose to discuss. 

1. One view brings the water from the Great Sea, through an earthquake 
channel: Zech. xiv, 5. That theory is, in substance, the following: The earth- 
quake of Zech. xiv, will open a deep, broad channel from Azal on the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, in a line through the Mount of Olives, towards the Dead Sea. 
The waters of the Dead Sea being 1312 feet below the waters of the Great 
Sea, these latter waters, by the law of gravitation, rushing down this open 
channel, fill the Dead Sea basin; these waters, held in by surrounding moun- 
tains, rush down and clean out the old bed of the Jordan to the Red Sea. In 
this manner Jerusalem would be made the great seaport for the world's com- 
merce, and the land of Israel be made, in this manner a new Eden. This 
view has thrown around it one feature of interest, that of novelty. Can it be 
correct? We think not. Our space will not allow us to dwell on its diflicul- 
ties. Three objections will be sufficient to name: 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 17 

1. The theory assumes too much relative to the channel, a. By making 
Azal, Ascalon, it opens a long channel. Azal is a common (appellative) noun 
rather than a proper name. Its Hebrew is >)^^ and signifies standing still, 
ceasing; as a noun it means to the ceasing, or end. "My mountain valley," is 
the Valley of Jehoshaphat — lengthened eastward by the earthquake-valley 
which terminated toward the east at Azal; to the ceasing or end of their dan- 
ger, a short space east of the eastern base of the Mount of Olives, God pro- 
longs the Valley of Jehoshaphat, east through the mount for sudden escape. 
They pass through it to a place of safety. The new valley was east of Jeru- 
salem, h. The waters of the Great Sea would rush downward till they had 
filled the basin of the Dead Sea^ submerging Engedi (Eze. xlvii, 10), 900 feet; 
and En-eglaim 1240 feet, a somewhat moist place for drying nets. c. By 
actual measurment the waters of the Mediterranean and Red Seas have exactly 
the same mean level. The Dead Sea basin being filled to its brim, the three 
seas occupying the same level; how then could the okl Jordan bed be cleaned 
of its drift sands by any of these waters? Would the force of gravity allow 
any flow in these waters? When these objections are removed we have oth- 
ers to present. The affimative will appear before the close of this chapter. 

THE ARABIAN DYNASTY OP THE MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE. 

The materials for Mohammed's new religion, and his new empire were 
gathered, educated and closely drilled for the work of their mission by Moham- 
med himself; but the mission itself remained to be executed by his immediate 
successors — Caliphs. The dynasty that succeeded him in his empire was called 
by various names, such as Arabian, Saracenic, Locustian and Caliphate, as 
pointing out the nation or the office. The dynasty was called Arabian 
because the people of Arabia composed it; and as Arab means locust, it was 
Locustian. The Arabs were called Saracens (robbers of the desei-t) by the 
Greeks and Romans; a name which made tremble the nations of Christendom. 
We can use either of the four, since Caliphate means succession and simply 
denotes the office. As Caliph signifies succession, the peculiarities of the suc- 
cession should be noticed, in order that the reader may the better understand 
the mission of the Mohammedan Empire. 

Mohammed's Caliphs or successors were to occupy the prophet's position 
in the new Empire; but Mohammed was a priest and a king; a royal high 
priest, with the throne subservient to the altar; the Koran was a civil code as 
well as the ruJe of faith. The Caliphs were under the Arabian dynasty, royal 
high priests. Under the first dynasty there was a union of the church and 
state — the church the chief thought, the state its subordinate adjunct, to aid it 
in its conquests. Thoughts exist in groups, one chief thought with its family 
of associated thoughts, as adjuncts or accessories. Thoughts become visible 
by giving them bodies; by an embodiment. The universe is the embodiment 
of a series of divine thoughts. The earth is the embodiment of one in that in- 
finite series. This chief thought has its family of subordinate thoughts. The 
chief thought in the earth's creation was to furnish a habitation for a being in 
his image, to govern the lower orders of animated nature; and himself to be 
under the pure and holy government of his incarnated son. As the earth pro- 



18 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

gressed in its series of developments, new families of thoughts sprang into 
being by assuming visible forms. Thoughts are either chiefs or accessories. 
A few examples will illustrate our meaning. 

The empires of the earth are embodiments, each one, of one chief or cen- 
tral thought with its families of subordinates and accessories. Man thinks, 
these thoughts assume visible forms. 

1. Babylon, for instance, is a visible embodiment of a chief thought with 
its family of subordinates. Some person, standing upon the site, thought that 
it would make a desirable abode. It was made such, and the chief, and at 
first invisible thought, assumed a visible form, and was made a single dwell- 
ing place. Its growth was by the visible embodiment of families of accesso- 
ries. By investigating the elements of any embodiment we learn the charac- 
ter of the thought itself. 

.This primary chief thought which, by families, afterward grew into an 
empire, was, at first, the thought of one man, assuming the visible form of an 
earthly abode. The thought had no religious element. It was purely of the 
earth, earthy. Each of the four Gentile monarchies belongs to this class of 
thought. It was so of Persia, Greece and Rome. They were the offspring of 
wordly thoughts, without any religious element. The religious elements of 
the four empires were after thoughts, belonging to the families of the secon- 
dary accessory thoughts. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

The allegation, designed to be established, will find a clear illustration in 
the origin of the Roman Empire. Romulus, walking in the vicinity of the 
Tiber, is struck with the peculiar beauty of a certain spot. A thought springs 
to birth: this would make me a pleasant home. This thought is subsequently 
embodied, and a visible farm home is the result. This chief parent thought 
gives birth to an endless progeny of thoughts, secondary, though related to 
the chief parent thought. The embodiment of the accessories constituted the 
village of Rome; then, by their increase, the village became a city; and in the 
revolution of ages, the mighty all-conquering Roman Empire. A simple 
thought springing up in the brain of one man, grows into an empire. It will 
be seen here, that religion was no attribute of this chief thought. The same 
is true, as we have already stated, of the four Gentile monarchies. Religion 
was the growth of after thoughts, born simply to aid worldly schemes. Our 
allegation which we purpose to establish, is this, the Mohammedan Empire in 
its origin, and, in its constituent elements, is unlike the empires that preceded 
it, and well deserves the name of a new empire, composed of a new religion, 
and a new code of civil jurisprudence; both systems originating in the mind 
of Mohammed and contained in a book called the Koran. In this empire a 
divine truth is the chief, primary thought — "One God." 

Born under a system of gross idolatry in whose Kaaba (square house) were 
360 images, and he himself of the tribe of priests, a thought is born in the 
mind of Mohammed, which, when named, was called, "There is only one God." 
We do not pretend that this thought originated with Mohammed. The Ara- 
bian prophet got the thought from the mind of Moses; and Moses received it 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 19 

from God, "Here, O Israel, the Lord, our Goa, is one Lord:" Mark xii, 29; 
Deut. vi, 14. 

Mohammed, however, gives this thought of the divine unity, quite another 
origin: "Conveyed by Al Borak (the lightning) from Mecca to Jerusalem, he 
there, under the guidance, of Gabriel, passes upward through the seven 
heavens, saluting as he passes, the various ranks of men (Adam, Noah, Abra- 
ham, Moses and Christ) and of angels." Beyond the seventh heaven, he was 
alone, having transcended the limits of all other created beings. Passing the 
veil of the Divine Unity, his lightning steed hurried him onward to within 
two bow-shots of the throne, where, amidst the icy coldness that protects the 
mountain throne of light, he was touched by the hand of the Deity. Such an 
origin of the Divine Unity was sufficient to silence all his idolatrous objectors 
to his vievrs. 

This primary thought, enthroned as chief in the mind of Mohammed, soon 
begets a family of accessory thoughts; individuals of which ai-e as follows: 
"God is not begotten, neither is he a begetter; therefore Jesus is not the Son 
of God." 2. I am sent (apostle) of God to proclaim this truth (the divine 
unity) among all nations, as the article of faith and universal obedience. 3. 
The sword is the only effectual agent to accomplish such a change in human 
belief. Such was the origin of his empire. The embodiment of the cardinal 
truth (one God) with its primary adjunct (Mohammed is his apostle) gave to 
the world a new religion. The embodiment of the power of the sword origi- 
nated a new empire. Their union in the person of Mohammed constituted the 
original Mohammedan Empire; an empire peculiar in its origin and in its 
history. 

MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE. 

The Mohammedan Empire, under Mohammed its founder, was a union of 
church and state, the state being subordinate. Since that empire is the proper 
offspring of Mohammed's brain, it should have the name of its father; and 
not that of a foreign dynasty (Ottoman). It is an empire, in the strictest 
sense, of a false prophet. It is a religious empire, a church empire; composed 
of a body of Unitarians — the great Unitarian church of the world. Its first 
dynasty of rulers was composed of Unitarian high priests. Its second dynasty 
of chief rulers, was civil, that being the predominating power. 

In the four Gentile monarchies, the civil is the original predominating 
element, in the Mohammedan Empire the religious element is supreme. In 
the four universal empires the throne was supreme. In the empire of the 
False Prophet the altar was supreme; it resembling the Papal Empire. The 
Mohammedan Empire may exist, and be one of the chief empires in Satan's 
triple empire, though its present dynasty be driven beyond the Euphrates, its 
ancient extreme western boundary. 

Late movements in the Mohammedan world, point to the restitution of the 
supreme power to the Caliphs, and the re-establishment of the Arabian 
dynasty. Under that dynasty the Mohammedan' Empire was in its zenith of 
glory. The power of the Caliphs was supreme. The belt of empires except a 
small fraction of the Latin and Greek Empires, was under their domination. 



20 THE EASTERN QUESTIOK, 

They were the most absolute sovereigns then in existence. Their riches and 
splendor exceeded the Roman, even in the days of Trajan. By those that 
desire to master the events of the fifth trumpet, the Arabian dynasty of the 
Mohammedan Empire should be fully studied. 

BY WHAT MEANS THE LAND OP ISRAEL IS FERTILIZED. 

Prelude. — The land of Israel is not made productive by the circulation 
through it of sea- waters. Such waters are not "living watei's;" nor are they 
sufficiently elevated to circulate. Living waters belong to the natural system 
of irrigation; to that system which God renders efficient over lands of extreme 
fertility. The meteorology of the land of promise must resume its ancient 
laws. The former and the latter rains shall be restored and so modified as to 
satisfy the wants of every season, and their channels of distribution so 
arranged as to answer all purposes of a complete and perfect irrigation. That 
there will be such rain and channel systems over and in the land of Israel, the 
Bible most emphatically teaches. 

1. The rain system of the land of promise will be restored and perfected. 

2. Its channels of distribution shall be made efficient, and, in kind, perfect. 

3. The result will be the fertilizing of the soil to such a degree that it will 
sustain a dense population. Let us hear the inspired prophets: "And there 
shall be upon every high mountain, and every high hill, streams of water in 
the day of the great battle, when the towers fall." Isa. xxx, 25. Copious rains 
are here implied. "I open upon the hills streams, in the valleys fountains, and 
make the desert pools of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isa. xli, 18. 
Abundant rains precede. "I will pour water upon that which is thirsty, and 
streams upon that which is dry; I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my 
blessings upon thy offspring." Isa. xliv, 3. Here literal water is a type, typi- 
cal and anti-typical waters. Literal or typical waters, and spiritual or anti- 
typical waters, having the same location. (See Isa. xliii, 20; xliv, 8; xlviii, 
21; xlix, 10; Iviii, 11.) "I give them and the environs of my hill for 
a blessing, and cause the rain to come down in its time." Eze. xxxiv, 26. Here 
the rains are promised whenever, and in the places wanted. 

Their results are described in Isa. xxxv, 1, 2, "The wilderness and the sol- 
itary places shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom 
as the rose." In Eze. xlvii, 1-1 3, the waters and their healing and fertilizing 
properties, and their abundance are fully described; they are literal and typical 
waters. "And it shall come to pass at that time that the mountains will drop 
with wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will 
flow with water, and a fountain goes forth from the house of the Lord and 
waters the valley of Shittim." Joel iii, 18. Great physical changes are here 
implied. 

Since Shittim is in the land of Moab, east of Jordan, Num. xxxiii, 49, how 
could waters from Mount Zion now water the valley of Shittim? In Zech. xiv, 
8, we have the following: "And it happens in that day, living waters go forth 
from Jerusalem, their half to the east sea, and their half to the west sea, in the 
summer and in the winter (continually) shall it be." These waters flow east 
and west over the whole land. Physical changes must precede such a flow. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 21 

(More of this hereafter.) What are these waters? The term water, in the 
Bible, is used to express three classes of thought: a word with a triple mean- 
ing:— 

THE TERM WATER ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS. 

1. Literal water; this is its ordinary meaning. 2. Nations and people are 
symbolic waters. Isa. vii, 7; Rev. xvii, 15. 3. There are spiritual (typical) 
waters. Nu. xvii, 6; Nu. xx, 11; See ISTu. xxxiii, 36, That stream followed 
Israel 3*7 years, literal waters; and, at the same time typical, as explained by 
Paul in 1 Cor. x, 4. Christ said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and 
drink." Jno. vii, 37, 38. I am that typical rock, whence flowed the typical 
river that supplied my people. This fact, however, must be noted — these 
three classes of waters have their literal locations. These typical and literal 
waters described by the prophets are located in the land of Israel, and accom- 
plish their so-called work in that land. The literal waters fertilize the land of 
Israel; the spiritual waters purify the people of the land. Zech. xiii, 1. "For 
sin and uncleanliness," vs. 38, 39. "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture 
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" explained v. 39. 
("But this he spake, of the spirit, which they that believe on him should re- 
ceive; for the holy ghost was not yet (given); because that Jesus was not yet 
glorified.") As literal water to the thirsty soil, so are the spiritual waters to 
the moral world. Both the literal and typical waters shall flow from Mount 
Zion; the one the literal waters to fertilize the land of Israel; the other to wash 
the people from their moral pollutions. Both fountains are located in Mount 
Zion. 

MOHAMMEDAN EMPIRE UNDER THE DYNASTY OP CALIPHS. 

We have given our reasons for calling this empire Mohammedan, rather 
than Turkish. The Mohammedan empire is the brainwork of the false prophet 
Mohammed alone. He is its legitimate parent, both as to its ecclesiastical and 
its civil elements; it should therefore take the name of its father. Through 
the Koran, Mohammed rules that empire with equal power while dead, as 
when alive. He, through that book is the living father of a living empire. 

His successors were called Caliphs (Caliph means successor). They adop- 
ted the Koran, as the only exponent of I'eligious faith; and also, as the embod- 
iment of their civil jurisprudence. Mohammed formed the empire out of 
his own countrymen, the Arabs (Locusts); and, during his life, his followers 
were Arabians. No foreign conquests were made. They were drilled in the 
Arabian "pit," ready to rush forth to their work. 

THE FIRST CALIPHS AND THEIR MISSION. 

1. Abubeker, the first Caliph, and father-in-law to Mohammed, succeeded 
to the royal high priesthood A. D. 632. His first efforts were to subdue the 
Arabian tribes that had revolted on the death of the prophet. To keep the 
Arabians occupied, he marched against Babylonia, and the Greek emperor 
Heraclius, whose armies were in Syria. He died A. D. 635, aged 63 years. 

2. Second Caliph. — Omar, the prime minister of Abubeker, succeeded 



22 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

him, A. D. 635. His success was truly wonderful. During his royal high-priest- 
hood, he conquered Pei'sia, and Syria, taking Jerusalem, where on the site of 
Solomon's temple, he erected the Mosque of Omar, which is now standing. In 
ten years, the Mohammedan power occupied the zone of empires from Khi^^a 
in the north of Turkestan, to the western boundary of Tripoli. He was assas- 
sinated by a Persian slave, A. D. 644, after a reign of 9 years. 

3. Third Caliph. — Othman Ibu Aifan was born about A. D. 574 of the 
family of the prophet, and succeeded Omar to Dec. A. D. 644. He was des- 
potic; and, in consequence of his cruelty and injustice there were many revolts. 
The boundaries of the empire still extended. He was assassinated by Moham- 
med, son of Abiibeker, whom he strove to put to death. 

4. Fourth Caliph. — Ali was Mohammed's cousin, son-in-law and vizier. 
When Mohammed, before his assembled kinsman, asked who would be his 
vizier, Ali, (being only 14 years of age) replied, "I will! Let bui a man advance 
against tliee, I will pluck out his eyes, dash in his jaws, break his legs, and tear 
up his belly. O prophet, I am thy vizier." This answer is Mohammedan, 
not Christian. It is the spirit of that empire. Ali established a sect of his 
own in Persia, and succeeded Othman as the fourth Caliph, A. D. 649. He 
was assassinated in the mosque at Cufa, A. D. 669, while contending against 
the claims of Moawiyah, who had assumed the title of Caliph. 

THEIB SUCCESSOKS. 

Hassan, All's oldest son, succeeded his father, but resigned; then his 
younger brother Hosein, who was slain by Yezid of Damascus, son of Moa- 
wiyah. The throne of the Arabian empire was now removed to Damascus, 
where Caliphs were appointed, not of Mohammed's family. Persia still 
adheres to Ali as Mohammed's vicar. The Persian creed reckons twelve Imaums 
or pontiffs, viz: Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the descendants of Hosein to the 
ninth generation. The nine Imaums despised the pomp of the world and spent 
their lives in the study of religion, and put into practice the same principles. 
The twelfth Imaum, called Mahadi (guide), surpassed his predecessors in sanc- 
tity and in his solitude. He made a cavern near Bagdad his secret abode; the 
time and place of his death being unknown, his followers, therefore, pretend 
that he still lives, and will appear before the day of judgement to overthrow 
the tyranny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. 

We give these items of history that the reader may the better judge of the 
grounds of the Mohammedan faith in a coming Messiah (el Mahadi). 

The posterity of Mohammed and Ali stand above princes. They are reck- 
oned equal to the angels. They are the sheiks, sherif, and emirs of the Otto- 
man empire. A family of three hundred persons, the pure and orthodox branch 
of the Caliph Hassan, is preserved without taint or suspicion in the holy cities 
of Mecca and Medina, and still retains, after the revolutions of twelve centuries 
the custody of the temple and the sovereignty of their native land. 

FIFTH CALIPH. 

Yezid, had his throne at Damascus. Mecca and Medina being abandoned, 
and the family of Mohammed rejected. The Koran, however still continued 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 23 

to be the rule of faith and the supreme tribunal of all jurisprudence. The 
brain of Mohammed, therefore, was the dictator. Space will not allow us to 
dwell at length on the history of the succeeding Caliphs of the Arabian or Sar- 
acenic dynasty. Conquest and discipleship were their distinctive national 
traits, till the founding of Bagdad, the city of peace, A. D. 762. Motassem, 
the last of the Abbassides (of the family of Abbas, uncle of Mohammed) was 
taken and put to death by the Tartars, A. D. 1269. To the 20th of February, 
in the 10th century, the Mohammedan Empire had their Caliph and three cap- 
itals Cordova, in Spain; Cairon, in Africa; and Bagdad on the Tigris. It was 
then of vast extent, great power, and incalculable wealth. The Caliphs were for 
centuries the absolute monarchs of the earth. In their persons were joined 
the altar, and the throne. For the space of one hundred and fifty years their 
temperance and frugality were remarkable. Their food and dress were very 
ordinary though the wealth of the globe was gathered at the feet of their 
thrones. 

Their institutions of learning at Bagdad, Cordova and Cairon became 
very celebrated, and the Arabian learning continued popular for five centuries. 
Their youth leaving their armies, entered their colleges, and the arts of peace 
succeeded the profession of war. This change in the Arabian dynasty paved 
the way for their fall, and for the introduction of a new family of rulers (the 
Ottoman). 

ADDITIONAL REMARKS. 

Did John, in his prophetic visions, see this Arabian, Saracenic or Locus- 
tian dynasty — this family of Caliphs? We affirm that he did; for, it was 
located within his prophetic horizon, and its miss on was against apostate Chris- 
tianity, as then existing in the Greek and Latin empires. If John saw this power, 
where in the Apocalypse, is its record? We answer, in Rev. ix, 1-1 1 inclu- 
sive. Read that record, and compare it with the history of that dysnasty and 
mark their many and very striking analogies. These analogies have been pub- 
lished in our "Coming Age," to which we refer the reader. No one can fol- 
low Mohammed from A. D. 612 to his death, and his Caliphs or successors to 
the founding of Bagdad (the city of peace) A. D. 762, without concluding that 
they were sent for a special work; and that their appearance was like armies 
of locusts, and that their work was similar. That they were executive agents 
will appear from their failure to carry out fully the intent of their conquests, 
viz: the subjugation of the world to the Koran. Had they not been defeated 
by Charles Martel in the center of France, the cross would have forever, per- 
haps, fallen before the crescent, and the Mohammedan Empire would have 
been the fifth universal monarchy. It was not the stone kingdom, and was 
therefore, doomed to be overthrown. 

WILD BEASTS AS SYMBOLS. 

In John's vision of Satan's triple empire. Rev. xvi, 13, the three elements 
of which it is composed, are 1. The dragon; 2. The wild beast; 8. The false 
prophet — three kingdoms in one empire. Satan's empire is, therefore, a 
trinity of empires. Why should the Deity use a wild beast to symbolize a 
body of civil rulers? Why not use a literal term? God has his reasons, which 



24 THE EASTBKK QUESTION, 

tons, seem wise. 1. Symbolic language is more general and comprehensive. 
2. Literal spoken languages are constantly changing; symbols are the same in 
all ages. Daniel's metallic iniage and his four wild beasts and stone convey 
the same thoughts now as when seen by Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. 3. Sym- 
bolic language is vastly more comprehensive. It is miniature history. In the 
life of a wild beast, extending over a few years, you have the life of an empire 
reaching through as many centuries. 4. The acts of civil empires among men 
aud races, resemble those of wild beasts within the circles of their domination. 
How do we distinguish between the life of a beast and his dominion? 
("As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away 
yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time." Dan. vii, 12.) In the 
divine mind there is a distinction. What is it? On a certain territory, dis- 
tinctly defined, and separated by legal boundaries from all other lands, is erected 
a government administered by certain rulers. Within this territory that 
nation lives, moves, and has its being; this is the boundary of their habitation. 
Acts xvii, 26. All the powers exercised beyond these God-fixed limits, is 
their dominion. Universal empires extend their dominion over the world; this 
is taken away. Three of those empires, had their dominion absorbed by the 
fourth monarchy. The fourth monarchy wears the universal diadem till he 
comes whose right it is. Rev. xix. Hence the fourth monarchy is an element 
in Satan's triple empire, and his recuiting officer, and adjutant general is an 
unclean spirit like a frog. It will be seen (Rev. xvi, 13), that the frog-power 
is not limited to France, nor to Egypt, nor to Greece; neither are these wicked 
spirits, like frogs confined to any one country, but like these noisy little 
creatures, live in every land, Kosmopolites, citizens of the world, sent out on 
a special mission, it is true, yet, at home everywhere, that they may exercise a 
controlling influence over all classes. (More of the frog power in its proper 
place.) 

OTTOMAN OR TURKISH DYNASTY. 

What is it? Whence came it? Before answering these questions, it is 
well to notice again a remarkable distinction between the Arabian and Turkish 
dynasties. The Arabian dynasty was composed of two elements, civil and 
ecclesiastical, the ecclesiastical predominating, the throne behind the altar. 
Mohammed was first a priest; then a royal high-priest. Such were his Caliphs 
(successors) till subjugated by the Turks. Under the Turkish or Ottoman 
dynasty, there was, at firt*t, a partial separation of church and state; the Sultan, 
after many years, assuming pontifficial powers. During every period, however, 
the throne (civil power) has ruled the altar. Since the Mohammedan is a reli- 
gious empire, its present dynasty is unnatural and the tendency is to the resti- 
tution of the ancient order. Hence every false prophet among the Moham- 
medans aims at the subversion of the Ottoman dynasty, and the restitution of 
the supremacy of the Arabian Caliphate. This will appear as we progress in 
the Ottoman history. These remarks will, perhaps, answer the first question. 

ORIGIN OP THE TURKISH DYNASTY. 

A Turk! a name world-wide and proverbial. It is a family name, a name 
appropriated to a people once called Scythian shephards; having their origin at 



FGTPTIAK PHASE. 25 

the foot of Alta yeen Oola (the golden mountain,) at the summit of Central Asia. 
Leaving the body of those wanderers, let us trace one family, and confine our 
remarks to one member of that single family — Seljuk, a native of Turkestan. 
He was a horseman from early youth, as were all his people. Who could have 
predicted that the grand son of this wild Scythian, would turn Mohammedan 
and become the proud Sultan, of that mighty empire? 

Seljuk, for a daring crime, fled from his country with his followers, and 
they became disciples of the Koran. Conquring Eastern Persia, the Turk- 
mans made choice, by lot, of Togrul Beg, the son of Michael, the son of Seljuk, 
for their king. Seljuk outlived his son Micheal, and took the care of his grand- 
son Togrul Beg, who, at the age of 45 years (Seljuk being 107 years old) was 
declared Sultan, in the royal city of Mshabur. Persia was soon conquered, 
Media soon fell before the Sultan's arms. Togrul's conquests extented to the 
Euphrates where he met the Greek forces, and demanded tribute of the empe- 
ror of Constantinople. The Turkish nation then embraced Mohammedanism. 
Togrul Beg was a zealous follower of the Koraa. So were his nephew Alp 
Arslan, and his nephew's son Malek Shah. He offered five prayers j)er day 
and fasted two days in each week, and built a mosque in every city before he 
erected any palace. He had also great reverence for Mohammed's successors, 
the Caliphs. 

Cayem, the Caliph of Bagdad, named Togrul Beg the Seljukian Sultan, 
his temporal vicegerent over the Mohammedan world; took his sister (Togrul's) 
into his harem, and finally gave his daughter in marriage to the Sultan. Thus 
were the two dynasties united. The Sultan was the head of the civil power, 
while the Caliph exercised supreme power in the church. 

SECOND SULTAN. 

Togrul was succeeded by his nephew Alp Arslan, whose name was pro- 
nounced in the Moslem prayer after their Caliph's in all the mosques. Alp 
Arslan crossed the Euphrates and attacked the Greek Empire with myriads of 
Turkish horse, extending their line 600 miles from Taurus to Arzeroum, sacri- 
ficing 150,000 Christians to the Arabian prophet. 

Passing south and west, the Sultan with his son Malek, carried the holy 
war toward Egypt and Constantinople. After three campaigns the Turks were 
driven by the Greek emperor across the Euphrates. Alp Arslan, in person, 
with 40,000 horse drove the enemy before hini, though numbering 100,000 men, 
defeated the Greeks and made their emperor i his prisoner. Western Asia sub- 
mitted to the Sultan; 1,200 princes or the ^ons of princes, waited before his 
throne, and 200,000 soldiers marched under his banners. 

He then turned his arms against his own country (Turkestan) and fell by 
the hand of an assassin. On the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty are these words, 
"O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, repair to 
Maru, and you will behold it buried in the dust." 

THIRD SULTAIp". 

Malek Shah. — The eldest son of Alp Arslan (Malek Shah) succeeded him. 
He was, by the Caliph, made the commander of the faithful; he being the first 



26 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

prince, not Arabian, that had the honor of that title. Malek Shah was the 
greatest monarch of his age. The Seljukian dynasty (Turkish dynasty of the 
Arabian empire) spread over more of the world's sm-face than the empires of 
Cyrus, and of the Caliphs in the zenith of their glory. His dominion extended 
east to China, north to Samarkand, west to Georgia and the vicinity of Con- 
stantinople, and south over Syria and Jerusalem, and included the spicy groves 
of Arabia Felix, His immense army of horse, (those employed in hunting 
being 47,000) were in constant motion, visiting in person, twelve times, all 
parts of his empire. Colleges, mosques, and other instiutions, sprang up over 
all his dominions. 

The unity of the empire ceased with Malek Shah, he dividing it among 
his four sons — forming as many Sultanies. Four Sultanies of the Turkish 
dynasty. These divisions were located as follows: 1. Persia, located east of 
the Euphrates. 2. Kerman, one of the eastern provinces of Persia. 3. Syria. 
4. Roum, or New Rome, situated in Asia Minor. It had been the Greek em- 
pire of Asia, extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, and from the 
Black Sea to Syria. This was, in its location, one of the most dangerous to 
the existence of the Greek empire in Europe. There were other Sultanies of 
later date, but these four were the most noted. Two were east of the Euphra- 
tes and two west of it. 

The river itself formed the axis of the Turkish empire during many cen- 
turies, though it originated east of the Euphrates, and, during the Roman 
greatness was confined principally to that side of the river, and it was also 
driven across the Euphrates during the Tartar invasion, and also by the Cru- 
saders. From the origin of the Turkish dynasty it was under the Seljukian 
Turksfrom A. D. 1035to the combination of all the fragments of the Seljukian 
sultanies under Athman or Othman the Oguzian Turk A. D. 1299. The 
Turkish dynasty of the Mohammedan empire, has, therefore, had two reigning 
families, the Seljukian and Oguzian Turks, the latter of which still reigns over 
the Turkish empire. The second tribal family (Oguzian) dates back to Othman 
the father of the Othman empire, or the present dynasty of the Mohammedan 
empire. 

Our remarks on the rise and history of the Mohammedan empire have been 
protracted for several reasons: 1. We aimed to identify that empire with the 
false prophet of Rev. xvi, 13; where it is said, "I saw three unclean spirits 
(come) out of the mouth of a dragon, and out of the beast, and out of the 
mouth of a false prophet." It is conceded that the dragon and the beast sym- 
bolize two empires under the control of religions hostile to pure Christianity; 
viz. Paganism and Apostate Christianity. These empires gather against Christ, 
two classes of enemies only. But Satan's empire is a triple empire, containing 
three classes of enemies. A single glance at the Eastern world will disclose 
the fact that 180,000,000 of Christ's enemies marshal under another banner, 
that of a false prophet, which can be no other than Mohammed. Since he 
lives and commands through the Koran — he being dead yet speaketh. 

To demonstrate this identity we have followed the history through its 
Arabian dynasty, into its Turkish dynasty, and have shown in what manner 
the second dynasty succeeded the first; that the power of the Caliphate still 
exists, that the Altar still rules the throne. In Satan's grand army or war 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 21 

empire are three divisions including the forces of the whole world, Pagan, 
Apostate Christian and Mohammedan. We are now prepared to introduce 
some thoughts relative to Egypt — its past, its present and its future. 

PRELUDE. 

Time moves swiftly upon the wings of its own inherent restlessness. The 
universe, with its complicated machinery, wheels within wheels revolving, is 
of)erated by an agent of resistless power, marshaling the empires and states into 
line, perparatory to the conflict of the nobleman with his Eden adversary. 

Ever since the fall, the star of empire has taken its course toward the west. 
Henceforward the star of empire will appear in the east, having described the 
zone of human domination. The golden beams of a new day-dawn betoken 
the approach of the sun of righteousness. That day, among whose shadows 
we are now walking, has a morning of tempest, a noon of peace, and an 
evening of storm; a reign of subjugation, covering Christ's ofiicial reign, 
succeeded by the endless joint reign of the Father and Son. 

The world is exceedingly worldly; "eating and drinking, marrying and 
giving in marriage." This extreme national greed must result in conflicting 
interests, bringing about severe contests for supremacy. Secular governments 
follow the laws of Mammon, rather than those of God; hence the origin of those 
collisions now so conspicuous in the eastern world. 

Nations themselves have one motive to action; God, their supreme ruler, 
quite another. While the nations are striving for supremacy, the Deity is 
over-i'uling and shaping their movements for the introduction of his Son's 
domination. The approaching struggle has a religious as well as civil aspect. 
What religion shall predominate? What ruler shall put on the universal 
diadem? Who shall be the King of kings, and Lord of lords? 

When Christ, the nobleman, having received the kingdom returns, (Dan. 
vii, 13,14,) he finds the territory of his inheritance occupied by his enemies, 
ready to dispute titles. They marshal under three standards: those of the 
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Hence the morning of that day will 
open with a subjugating war — the reign of subjugation; for he (Christ) must 
reign till he (Christ) hath put all enemies under his (Father's) feet. I Cor. 
XV, 25, 26. To Christ every knee shall bow. Isa. xlv, 23; Ph. ii, 10; Ps. ii; 
Rev. xi, 18; xix, 11-21 describe the morning of that day; Ps. Ixxii, its noon, 
and Rev. xx, 8-15 the evening of the reign of subjugation. Many questions 
arise which claim attention: 1. What are the chief hostile nations? 2. What 
position does each nation occupy in that conflict? 8. Where will be the chief 
battles? 4. If on the mountains of Israel, why? 5. What will be the condi- 
tion of that land at that time? 6. Is the land of Israel the sanctuary that is 
to be cleansed? 7. What is that cleasing? 8. Are not the beast and the false 
prophet or the Western or Latin nations first, then the Mohammedan empire, 
and last the dragonic nations, overthrown? Rev. xix and xx. 

EGYPT. 

A brief outline of the past history of this remarkable country and people 
with their present state, will aid in the investigation of their future; for, with 



28 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

their future we are concerned. Eajypt has had many names: 1. Land of Ham. 
They showed his wonders in the land of Ham. Ps. cv, 27, because it was 
peopled by Ham. 2.. The land of Mizraim, the son of Ham. Mirraim is a 
dual and is supposed to represent two parts of Egypt, Upper and Lower. 3. 
Arabic name of Egypt is Mizr, red, (as some say) black mud, from the color of 
the soil. 4. "Rahab," (symbol) the proud. Lower Egypt, Isa. li, 9. Land of 
Hebrew bondage. 5. The Egyptian hieroglyphics were written Kem or 
Kemee, "black," from the blackness of alluvial soil. 6. Northern region — 
Ta-Meheet. 1. Ta-res, the southern region. Each region for a time had a 
different crown. Under the Greeks and Romans there were three divisions. 
It was called the bed of the Nile, since its waters, when high, cover all the 
surface that is cultivated — 5,626 square miles. It was also called the child of 
the Nile, since that river produced it. It was the granary of the Greeks and 
Romans, also of the ancient world. Its supply of corn brought the Hebrews in- 
to Egypt. Egypt is in a valley on each side of the Nile, which has no branches 
for 600 miles, (as it never rains;) shut in on the west by the Lybian mountains, 
and on the east by the Arabian mountains. 

DESCRIPTION OP EGYPT. 

Amou, the Arabian, the lieutenant of the Caliph Omar, who conquered 
Egypt A. D. 640, thus describes it. "O commander of the faithful, Egypt is 
a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulverized mountain 
of red sand. The distance from Syene to the sea is a month's journey for a 
horseman. Along the valley descends a river (the Nile), on which the blessings 
of the Most High reposes both in the evening and morning, and which rises 
and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When the annual dispen- 
sation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, 
the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt; 
the fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the villages communicate 
with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits 
a fertilizing mud, (6 inches in a century) for the reception of the various 
seeds; the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a 
swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash 
of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful in- 
crease. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract from 
the wheat, the barley and the rice, the legumes, the fruit trees and the cattle, 
are unequally shared between those who labor and those who possess. Accord- 
ing to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with 
a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest." 

ITS PECULIARITIES. 

Omitting the things of Egypt, common to other countries, brevity requires 
us to narrat esimply its peculiarities. In the geological ages, Egypt was, at 
first, only a rock-trough, six hundred miles long from the falls of Syene to the 
sea, the southern end of the trough being at the falls, the lower end opening 
into the delta — the stone channel had no delta. At the bottom of this channel 
flowed the Nile; the average width of this trough was 15 miles; its sides 1,000 



EGYPTIAIf PHASE. 29 

feet high on the east, and 600 on the west. Such a stone channel did God 
make Egypt. To fit this trough for living organisms, this rock channel had 
to be furnished with a soil. That soil had to be brought from a distance. Far 
to the south were rich alluvial treasures in the lands now called Ethiopia, Sou- 
dan, Abyssinia, Nubia, including equatorial and central Africa. All central 
and northeast Africa were to contribute of their mineral and alluvial treasures 
to supply Egypt, and to recover from the sea her immense and magnificent 
delta. Particle by particle, through a series of unknown ages, has this 
infinitely varied African soil been wafted by one vast river-system (the Nile 
and its tributaries) into the valley of Egypt. 

The waters from Victoria Nyanza, 2° south of the equator, and at an 
elevation of 3,800 feet above the Mediterranean, with their tributaries; the 
waters of Albert Nyanza, named, between the lakes, the Victoria Nile; the 
waters of its tributary, Bahr-el-Gazal from the west; the waters of its second 
tributary, the GirafEe; the waters of the Sobat tributary from the east; the 
waters of many smaller tributaries that flow into it before it reaches Khartoum. 
The waters of Abai and the Blue Rivers, with their innumerable branches, that 
have their sources in Abyssinia, (the White and the Blue Niles uniting at 
Khartoum;) the waters of the Atbara, (called Bahr-el- As wad; the black river 
as it carries down it the principle portion of mud (black) and slime that 
manures and renders productive the valley of Egypt,) contribute their sub- 
stance to this remarable valley. 

HOW FASHIONED. 

Thus did God make Egypt; first fashioning its rock-structure, and, after 
that, through a series of years,* furnishing it with all things necessary for the 
home of innumerable living organisms. God has made Egypt, as a country, 
what it now is. Who can deny its divine origin? Volney, the infidel, saw 
Egypt and described it in the following sentence: "To describe Egypt in two 
words, let the reader imagine on one side a narrow sea and rocks, on the 
other immense plains of sand; and in the middle, a river flowing 
through a valley of a hundred and fifty leagues in length, and from three to 
seven wide, which, at the distance of eighty leagues from the sea separates 
into two arms, the branches of which wander over a country where they meet 
with no obstacles, and which is almost without declivity." 

To those who believe in the earth's creation, the hand of the Creator is 
visible in the location, construction, and in the peopling of Egypt. Let us 
consider these points. What is peculiar about its location? Place before you 
the connected maps of Africa and Asia. Mark the relative position of the 
Egyptian valley. Where can be found its similitude? Located in the 
extreme northeast of Africa, it forms what might be called the extreme south- 
west of Asia. Which continent has held supreme power over it during the 
most years? Ethiopia held possession of Egypt forty years. What 
other African state has claimed the valley of Egypt? What Asiatic 
empires, including northern, central and western Asia, have not, at 
times, been Egypt's conqurors? Shem has claimed for centuries the 
land of Mizraim the son of Ham. The valley of Egypt faces the 



30 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

great Eastern world; and, in the present state of African civilization has 
but little to do with her continent. 

Since the civilizing of Europe, and the discovery and peopling of the 
New World, Egypt's location has become remarkable. It is, and must continue 
to be, the world's inn, on the great national highway between the great west 
and the great east. 

Should Africa yield to civilization and all our modern improvements 
spread over that sable continent, what then would be the position of Egypt? 
What valley has such soil, such a river, such a system of irrigation, such suns, 
such winds? What valley has ever had such a peculiar construction? Located 
at the foot of a system of inclined plains, down which flow the waters of half 
a continent, wafting in their bosom that which makes rejoice the hearts of 
millions of our race. 

We have said nothing relative to its vicinity to the land of Israel. This 
will be noticed when we speak of the land and nation of Israel. There are 
three countries, which, in the future seem to be intimately associated. Egypt, 
Israel and Assyria, but as this has to do with the people of those lands we 
cannot now speak of those matters. We have noticed the country; we shall 
next describe the people. 

A DESCRIPTION OP THE PEOPLE OP EGYPT. 

That God (Elohim QTl >'^) created the earth, the Bible declares, "In the 
beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth." Gen. i, 1. 
That he reduced it to order and furnished it for the abode of Adam and his 
posterity is also stated. That he furnished a certain district in an extraordin- 
ary manner will appear from the following: "And the Lord God planted a 
garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man (Adam) whom he had 
formed. And out of the ground (of the garden) made the Lord God to grow 
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also 
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And 
a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted 
and became into four heads." An excellent river system of irrigation; this 
system with the "mist" rendered the garden a paradise. If God has taken 
pains to fit up one spot for a special purpose, why not another? May not 
Egypt have been one of those favored locations? 

God is also the Maker, Father, and disposer of the nations that have 
dwelt upon the earth; "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing 
that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 
neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing 
he giveth to all life, and breath and all things; and hath made of one blood 
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- 
mined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." Acts 
xvii, 24-26. 

That he has disposed of kings and crowns, as an arbiter, we have illus- 
trious examples. 1. "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus; every head (was) made 
bald (by the constant wear of their helmets); and every shoulder (was) peeled 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 31 

(by carrying baskets of earth) ; yet had he no wages (the goods of Tyre being 
carried away by their ships), nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that 
had served against it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will 
give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and he shall 
take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the 
wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt (for) his labor where- 
with he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God." 
xxix, 18-21. No language can convey more forcibly God's claims to the 
property, and absolute authority over the nations; as he would not give what 
did not belong to him. 

Nebuchadnezzar was lifted up by his great success, and said. Is not this 
great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of 
my power, and for the honor of my majesty? After seven years of pasture 
with the beasts, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that the Most High ruleth in 
the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Dan. iv, 30, 32. 

That God formed and furnished the valley of Egypt in an extraordinary 
manner, we have fully shown. That he has disposed of its national dynasties 
as their supreme arbiter, is a matter of prophetic record, that will fully appear 
as we progress. That he has some great plan to accomplish in his government 
and disposal of Egypt, cannot be questioned. What it is, we think, is, in part 
revealed, and can be shown. 

EGYPT — PAST HISTORY OP ITS PEOPLE. 

We have described the land of Egypt. It now remains for us to 
pay some attention to the past history of its people. What races have 
dwelt in Egypt? What is its antiquity? We cannot go beyond the 
flood, since there is no traditional sketch of Ante-Diluvian Egypt. It 
was the period ascribed to the reign of giants, who perished by the waters of 
the deluge. The earth that now is, was divided among the three sons of 
Noah; Ham, the second son, taking Africa, the second in size of the grand di- 
visions. Ham was not Noah's favorite. He committed an act that brought 
the curse of God upon a part of his posterity. He became a wanderer in the 
distant south, and gave birth to the race of black men, as his name (Ham) sig- 
nifies black; also hot, since it is the same as the Egyptian word Kem (Egypt, 
which means hot as well as black). His father's curse rested upon his son 
Canaan. 

The history of the family of Egypt divides itself into ten periods; 1. Tra. 
ditional; 2. Monumental; 3. Hebrew; 4. Babylonian; 5. Persian; (5. Gre- 
cian; 7. Roman; 8. Arabian; 9. Turkish or Ottomon; 10. The period 
of Messiah's reign. Eight periods are finished; the ninth is now in progress; 
the tenth is in the future. The eight completed periods will be described very 
briefly and only as they illustrate God's dealings with that family. On the 
ninth we shall be more particular. The tenth will claim special notice. 

THE TEADITIOJSTAL PERIOD. 

This period extends from the flood to the building of the first 
Great Pyramid, covering about one hundred and seventy-eight years. 



32 THE EASTBEN QUESTION, 

How soon after the flood Egypt was settled, is not definitely stated. 
The sons of Noah with their families continued in southwestern Asia, making 
use of one language. "And the whole earth was of one language and of one 
speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found 
a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there." Gen. xi, 1, 2. While 
they were building a city and a tower (Babel) the Lord confounded their lan- 
guage, and scattered them over the face of all the earth. It was then that 
Ham and his people journeyed to the south and entered Africa by way of 
Egypt, its northeastern extremity. The valley of the Nile, so luxuriant and 
attractive, caused them to pitch their tents there, on which account Egypt was 
called the "land of Ham;" and later it had the name of Mizraim, second son 
of Ham, as Mizraim had Egypt for his portion. Allowing 100 years from the 
flood to the confusion of tongues; and the dispersion, Mizraim's settlement in 
Egypt would be about B. C. 2230 to 2200. Mizraim founds the Egyp- 
tian empire B. C. 2188. Eighteen years later would begin the monumental 
period. Mizraim of the Bible is Menes of history. We are safe in 
saying that the first periods cannot be reducted to chronological accuracy. Six- 
teen hundred and sixty- three years are assigned to the duration of the Egyp- 
tian empire, to its conquest by Cambyses, B. C. 625. This empire has many 
peculiarities. One in particular is worthy of notice. Mizraim originated its 
religious system. That most productive valley in the world, and the location 
of the seminary of the world, did become the first seat of debasing idolatry. 
Truly, "the world, by wisdom, knows not God." Mizraim's father (Ham) 
floated on the bosom of those waters sent expressly to destroy a race of cor- 
rupt rebels against the divine government. Ham was familiar with the works 
of his father Noah, and with the origin of the deluge. No doubt of Miz- 
raim's knowledge of that great catastrophe and also, of their dispersion 
from the tower of Babel; yet with the clear and distinct knowledge of God's 
dealings with offenders; even back to Cain; and, with his hatred of rivals, this 
son of Ham, this grandson of Noah, in a land fitted up by God as a second 
paradise, establishes a system of idolatry, of the most degrading form! This 
is Egypt's first great national sin. 



MONUMENTAL PERIOD. 

Egypt is a land of monuments. Their public structures may be divided 
into two classes, those that exalted the living and those that were designed to 
perpetuate the memory of the mighty dead. Among these may be named the 
following: 1. Sphinxes are symbolic representations of Egyptian monarchs. 
Their heads were human, their bodies those of lions, which taught the lesson 
that kings should be wise and strong; wise as the educated priests, their 
teachers and strong as the lion. 

2. Obelisks were monuments of public squares and other places of pub- 
lic resort. They were very numerous over the valley of Egypt, erected by 
their kings. They combined the cube, at their bases, the prism as their 
shafts, and the pyramids as their summits. They were very ancient monu- 
ments, but not as old as the first pyramid. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 33 

THE LABTKINTH. 

This monument was said to be more wonderful than the pyramids. It 
consisted of twelve palaces combined into one, with communications one with 
another, "1500 rooms, interspersed with terraces, were ranged round twelve 
thalls, and discovered no outlet to such as went to see them. There was the 
like number of buildings underground. These subterraneous structures were 
designed for the burying place of the kings, and also (who can speak of this 
without confusion, and without deploring the blindness of man!) for keeping 
he sacred crocodiles, which a nation, so wise in other respects, worshipped 
as Gods.' 

THE LAKE MOERIS. 

4. We describe this lake as one of the works of man, since it is artificial, 
being constructed by king Moeris, to supply the irregularities of the Nile. 
When the Nile was too full for a prosperous season, its surplus waters were 
drawn off into the lake; if deficient, the waters of the lake supplied this defi- 
ciency. 

Its size was the wonder. This lake was thirty miles long aud six miles 
wide, and its average depth is twelve feet, in some parts twenty-eight feet deep. 
It is connected with the Nile by a canal called Bar-Jusuf (the river of Joseph). 
This lake was, when in the hands of the Pharaohs, plentifully supplied with 
fish. This revenue, (|>660 per day) was used to supply the queen's wardrobe 
and perfumes. The canal was over twelve miles long, whose great sluces to 
open and shut the canal and lake cost $55,000. The Egyptian kings filled the 
valley of the Nile with canals communicating with the Nile to supply water. 

PYRAMIDS. 

Of these monuments there were about 70 in Egypt. They were all, per- 
haps, in their external form, imitations of the first, which is called the Great 
Pyramid of Gizeh, situated on the north bank of the Nile, near the ruins of 
Memphis, Latitude 30° is the first; it is the original pyramid and the 
most perfect. It was constructed in the reign of Cheops, whose name it 
bears. He was the first of the Khufu monarchs (hieroglyphic form of 
Cheops). Who constructed this pyramid? For what purpose was it erected? 
These questions are not readily answered. They are usually solved as fol- 
lows: It was designed and constructed by Cheops. Some say that he built it 
to resist the enroachment of the Lybian sands, for graneries, reservoirs, for 
sepulchres or for astronomical purposes. The general view is that Cheops 
erected it for a tomb. 

1. To the first question we answer, a. The plan or pattern is not the 
brain-work of Cheops. It is not a visible embodiment of his thoughts. The 
plan is further beyond Cheop's mental powers, than the tabernacle was be- 
yond the powers of Moses. This will appear from the structure itself, b. 
The pyramid itself is a monument of science. Built into its very structure is 
an encyclopedia of physical science. It chronicles its own age (B. C. 2170); 
teaches its own origin; explains the object of its construction; and explains its 



34 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

parts from its base upwards. To the pyramidologist it is a comprehensive 
and wonderful text-book. Its system of astronomy is more comprehensive 
and more accurate than any modern system — than that of Vince, Newton or La- 
Place. It is an outline of modern astronomy, and unlike any system of its 
own antiquity, whether Babylonian, Chinese or Indian. 

PEELUDB — A STEP IN ADVANCE. 

The Egyptian is but one phase (aspect) of the Eastern Question. It has 
as many phases as there will be principal nations occupied in the coming 
struggle. Among these the Hebrew phase (composed of Judah and Israel) 
will be the most prominent. But, in the revolutions that will unite the two 
nations, Jerusalem, their ancient seat of religion and civil law, and their fu- 
ture cai:)itol will be a "burdensome stone for all people; all that burden 
themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth 
be gathered together against it." Jerusalem is God's city. He claims it for 
his people. No nation was ever blessed in holding Jerusalem. It has always 
been to its Gentile conquerors a "burdensome stone." And such it is, and 
will be. The Egyptians found it such (see history). Jerusalem has had sev- 
enteen sieges. Two or three are yet to come. Four tiines it was razed to the 
ground. Six times, at least, its walls have been thrown down. A city of 
mountains and in the midst of mountains. Of what advantage has it ever 
been to a Gentile monarch? Could they answer from the dust two words 
would express their experience, A "burdensome stone!" What gain was Jeru- 
salem ever to Egypt or Syria proper? How did sheeverbenefit Assyria, Persia, 
Greece, Rome or Arabia? What has she been, or is now to the Ottoman em- 
pire? "A burdensome stone!" What was she to Western Europe during the 
Ci'usades? To the Gentiles, she has always been, what she was of old, "A re- 
bellious city, and hurtful unto kings and princes;" iu other words "A burden- 
some stone!" Turkey now holds Jerusalem, but is it not "A burdensome 
stone?" 

A TERRIBLE HOUR. 

"Just one terrible hour coming for Jerusalem according to Zech. xiv 12." 
So speaks a very able and kind brother. Let us see. Zechariah, uttering the 
purjaose of Jehovah, says: "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy 
spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations 
against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, 
and the women ravished; and half the city shall go forth into captivity, and 
the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." In Zech. xi, xii 
and xiii, we have brought to view a long captivity; a siege of Jerusalem by 
the nations; their overthrow; the manifestation of Jesus of Nazareth to Judah 
and Israel; their mourning, conversion and reign during Messiah's oflicial 
reign of subjugation, or millenial reign. The morning of Christ's oflicial 
reign (I Cor. xv, 25, 26; Rev. xix. 11-21) opens with a siege of Jerusalem. 
Judah is victorious outside of the city. After this overthrow of the forces of 
the beast and false prophet, and the flight of the dragonic army, there is a pur- 
suit of the pagan forces, and they are overthrown, and their leader — Satan, 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 85 

Rev. XX — is taken prisoner. Here commences the 1000 years' peaceful (com- 
paratively) official reign of Messiah. 

During this official reign the earth, with its subjugated nations comes 
under the dominion of Messiah, while he fills his third office (regal). The 
earth passes through its preliminary change, becomes very productive, healthy 
and (outwardly) filled w^ith an obedient people. This state continues through a 
series of ages, or during 1000 (prophetic perhaps) years. These are two parts 
of Messiah's reign of subjugation. It has a terminus, Zech. xiv; Ezek. xxxvii 
and xxxviii; and Rev xx, 8, 9. Of this we shall give some thoughts 
in our next prelude. Let us now go down among the monuments of the 
Pharaohs. 

THE GREAT PYRAMID CONTINUED. 

It is impossible in our limited space to do justice to such a noble struc- 
ture. We can walk about it; enter and examine its secret halls; can measure 
its chambers, uttering a vocabulary of interjections; but when we have fully 
ventilated our brain, it is only an ocean drop. Man's monuments can be com- 
prehended, but when God plans and builds, who can understand it to perfec- 
tion? Let us for a moment glance at the catalogue of pyramid lessons of 
science and religion. Here follows a very imperfect list: — 



PROBLEMS OF SCIENCE. 

1. Squaring of the circle. 2. Cardinal points. 3. n proportion. 4. Spherity 
of the earth. 5. Its movements on its axis and round the sun. 6. Its 
diameter. V. Its density. 8. Its poles. 9. Its latitudes. 10. Its distribu- 
tion of lands. 11. Its temperature. 12. Its position in the solar system. 13. Its 
distance from the sun. 14. The nature and length of the processional cycle. 
15. Divisions of time. 16. Position of the stars wheo the Pyramid was con- 
structed. 17. Charts of chronology. 18. Charts of history. 19. System of 
weights. 20. System of measures. 21. Hebrew commonwealth — its com- 
mencement and duration. 22. The Christian dispensation — time of begin- 
ning — its features and time of its close. 23. The incorporation of the solutions 
of these problems, with many others, into the structure of the Pyramid. 
24. Perfection of the work. 25. Variety of tools necessary for such an edifice. 
26. The vastness of the machinery for the erection of the building. 27. Its 
peculiar location. 28. Its form and size. 29. Its teachings are without error, 
either in their design, or in their execution. 30. Could all these coincidences, 
and seventy others, be accidental — that they happened to be so quarried, dressed 
and laid up as to solve such an encyclopedia of scientific problems? To sup- 
pose this is to admit the truth of a more stupendous miracle than its claim to 
a Divine origin. Charles Latimer, civil engineer, says: "This structure 
explains itself to the million eth part of a second. There are three keys in the 
Great Pyramid. 1. The key of pure mathematics. 2. The key 'of applied 
mathematics. 3. The key of past, present and future history. It is a book 
of Astronomic, Metric, Messianic and Prophetic Science. It was built nearly 
22 centuries (B.C. 2170) before Christ; 178 years after the flood and about 80 



36 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

years after Ham entered Egypt, soon after the formation of the Egyptian 
monarchy by Mizraim (Menes), the son of Ham. Has this first Pyramid a 
Hamitic, Shemitic, or a Divine origin? By this we mean to ask, who con- 
ceived the model? Was it the embodiment of human or Divine thought? 

TIME OF ERECTION. 

The Great Pyramid was erected in the days of Joktan and his thirteenth 
son Jobab (Hebrew translation, Father Job). This age of the world could 
not have formed such a model in any human brain, much less in an Egyptian 
brain. If a Shemite furnished the model, it was from one of the sons of Jok- 
tan (Jobab), at a time when human life was limited to about two hundred 
years (such was about the number of Job's years). Tradition says that a 
shepherd fed his flocks there during its building and that he furnished the 
king (Cheops) the model. Job (this shepherd) obtained this model from God 
God would therefore be its author. 

PURPOSE OP ERECTION. 

For what purpose was it erected? God has revealed his design to his 
prophet, Isaiah (Isaiah xix, 19). "In that day shall there be an altar to the 
Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar at the border thereof to 
the Lord." It was built in that remote age, but was shut till the "time of 
the end" (Dan. xii, 4). With this sketch we close our notice of Egyptian 
monuments. Certain other events belonging to this period of Egyptian his- 
tory deserve attention as illustrative of this family and their country. It cov= 
ers the Hebrew sojourn and bondage, commencing with the building of the 
Great Pyramid, B, C. 2170, and closing with their settlement in tlae land of 
Canaan, B. C. 1443, covering ni years. 

HEBREW SOJOURN AND BONDAGE. 

This, from the second call of Abraham, in Haran, to their leaving Egypt 
tinder Moses, was a period of 430 years. Egyptian history, during this time^ 
is quite obscure. We have a divine record of the chain of events that led 
the family of Jacob into Egypt — a glance at the 115 years of the severe 
Hebrew bondage — God's great judgments executed upon Pharaoh. But, as 
we are tracinsr Egyptian history, we shall confine our remarks to events that 
belong to that land and which illustrate God's purposes towards that country. 

1. We have seen that it was fitted up for, and furnished, as a second par- 
adise. 2. That it was made the land of intellect, of knowledge and of 
monuments. 3. That Jehovah had there erected his memorial pillar for 
future ages. 4. We shall now view that land as a divine asylum, a land of 
refuge, and, in those days, and since, the granary of the east. 

Fragments of history, only, of these early times — glance at Egypt. To. 
such we turn. God's special proprietorship over Egypt and over its manage- 
ment; over its laws and kings in ancient times, we propose to show, in order 
to aid us in explaining its present state and its future destiny. Abram's 
visit to Egypt in the time of the famine in Canaan is a striking illustration 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 



31 



of such an ownership. The Egyptians, captivated with the beauty of Sarah, 
brought her into the harem of Pharaoh (Egypt was not safe for beauty and 
virtue). "And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues, 
because of Sarah, Abram's wife." Gen. xii, 11. As if God had said to 
Pharaoh: "Egypt is my farm. You are my tenant. I have sent my servant, 
Abram, to reside with you until the famine in Canaan is over. Treat him 
kindly as my special friend." 

god's claims over EGYPT. 

2. The most noted instance of God's claims over Egypt is seen in the 
Hebrew sojourn, bondage and deliverance. God's vision to Joseph excited 
the envy and hatred of his brothers. This hatred caused his sale to the spice 
merchants of Midian, who were going down into Egypt to supply the special 
perfumery of Pharaoh's harem, in consequence of which Joseph was sold into 
the family of Pharaoh. His position caused his imprisonment. In prison he 
has an opportunity of interpreting correctly two dreams. < The reputation thus 
acquired brought him out of prison to interpret Pharaoh's dreams. These in- 
terpretations elevated him to a position of acting Governor of Egypt, with 
the control and disposal of seven years' productions of Egypt. 

The severe dearth over all the east brought all Asia into Egypt for corn. 
Among these were Joseph's brethren; then his father with all his substance, 
by invitation of Pharaoh (one of the shepherd dynasty who had conquered 
Egypt). This chain of providence is interpreted by Joseph: "Now, there- 
fore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither; for 
God did send me here before you to preserve life. For these two years (hath) 
the famine (been) in the land; and yet (there are) five years, in the which (there 
shall be) neither earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve 
you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So 
now (it was) not you (that) sent me hither, but God; and he has made 
me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all 
the land of the Egypt." Gen. xlv, 5-8. God gives Goshen (the Delta) to 
the Hebrews, where they continued until God had prepared another land for 
them, after the cup of the Amorites was full. Gen. xv, 16. 

god's judgment of EGYPT. 

God's judgment of Egypt shows his proprietorship. The circumstances 
which called the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage are quite familiar to the 
reader. We shall, therefore, confine our remarks to God's dealings with 
Pharaoh (crocodile), his hosts and with the land. God demanded of Pharaoh 
implicit obedience. On his refusal he began to expose him to his terrible 
judgments for his people's oppression. The ten plagues followed in quick 
succession, and the Hebrew exodus commenced. Pharaoh gathered his forces 
and overtook his slaves at the Red Sea. Pursuing them into the dry channel, 
made by Jehovah for his people, he was overwhelmed by the returning 
waters. 

Thus ended the Egyptian bondage and with it the monumental period. 
G^ far Egypt had exibited the most extraordinary features. To this period in 



38 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the world's history, it had been the queen of all lands. On account of its 
great fertility it had drawn into its valley people of the three great families, 
those of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Settled first by Ham and his posterity, it 
was conquered by Shemetic shepherds, who held it 260 years, during part of 
the Hebrew occupation; and, as a university, it was visited by many of the 
talented sons of Japheth. A peculiar land, held by a peculiar people. 

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 

TJet us look for a few moments into the future and continue our sketch 
of Jerusalem, whose past history has been so wonderful. Two terrible hours 
for Jerusalem coming; two sieges and one overthrow. 1. "And there shall be 
gathered together against her (the present Jerusalem), all the nations of the 
earth." Zech. xii, 3. This is the first siege of the Millennial Jerusalem, fol- 
lowed by Jehovah's triumph, the conversion and union of Judah and Israel 
by the sight of Jesus (JesUs of Nazareth), which takes place after the rap- 
ture of the saints. 

Christ's personal reign of subjugation, his official reign, I Cor. xv, 25; 
Rev. xix, 21. The present Jerusalem, not being taken at the first siege, con- 
tinues till near the evening of the reign of subjugation, when Satan, released 
from his prison, gathers the nations around the beloved city (Millennial city) 
and takes it; but is immediately overwhelmed by the Messiah, who deals 
with them by earthquake and a terrible tempest. A new city (New Jerusa- 
lem), takes the place of the overthrown Millennial city. (Read Ezek. xxxvii 
and xxxviii; Rev. xx, 8, 9, and Zech. xiv.) The new heavens and the new 
earth follow that overthrow and the joint reign of the Father and Son com- 
mences. Rev. xxi and xxii. 

During Christ's official reign the earth is full of subjugated nations; dur- 
ing the joint reign there are families of one nation. In the first siege Judah 
fights outside of Jerusalem; in the second siege Judah fights in Jerusalem. 
Those who examine critically the last three chapters of Zechariah will find 
two cycles of events: 1. The first cycle (Zech. xii, xiii), contains an invas- 
ion, siege, battle, a manifestation of Messiah to Judah and Israel; their con- 
version; the conquest of the nations. 2. The second cycle of events (Zech. 
xiv). a. The gathering of all nations against Jerusalem (the Millennial or 
beloved city), b. Its siege and overthrow, c. The revelation of Messiah 
with his bride (all the holy ones), d. A terrible conflict with tempest and 
earthquake, e. The new order of things is introduced. In the first cycle 
Jerusalem is not taken and Judah fights outside of the city; in the second cy- 
cle Jerusalem is taken and Judah fights in Jerusalem. We can find nothing 
in Zech. xiv, that, when correctly translated and properly interpreted, will con- 
flict with these views. We have taken a step in advance since these are ele- 
ments of the Hebrew Phase of the Eastern Question. 

EGYPTIAN HISTORY CONTINUED. 

During its Hebrew period, from the Exodus to the close of the Hebrew 
commonwealth and its (Egypt's) overthrow by Nebuchadezzar, B. C. 584. It 



EGYPTIAN" PHASE. 39 

includes the period of the greater prophets, and, therefore, contains a divine 
record of what was proposed relative to that land, its people and its rulers. 
His absolute proprietorship is clearly stated and his purposes made known to 
the prophets. His designs, as made known to those holy seers will now claim 
our attention. Egypt, next to the land of promise, seems to be God's espec- 
ial care. This will appear from his sayings to the prophets. The Hebrew 
bondage cast a dark mantle over Egypt's prosperity. The ovei'throw of Phar- 
aoh, (Amemophis II,) in the Red Sea was a most signal proof that Jehovah 
had entered into the era of Egypt's national judgment. Amemophis II was a 
native monarch of the reign of Ham. The Pharaoh of Joseph was a shepherd 
king of the 15th dynasty and consequently of the race of Shem. There were 
but few native kings after Amemophis II. No .country has ever had so great 
a variety of masters. Its great wealth, its amount of learning and its monu- 
mental wonders attracted the cupidity of all nations; hence its numerous in- 
vasions by other empires. But it is our province to follow the foot-prints of 
Jehovah in this ancient land of Ham and to open up God's purposes toward 
that valley as revealed to his prophets. Our space and time limit us to a sim 
pie outline. What, concerning Egypt, did Jehovah reveal to his servants, the 
prophets? 

PREDICTIONS REGARDING EGYPT. 

What has he accomplished? What are his future purposes relative to 
Egypt, as made known in his divine communications to the prophets, Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Micha and Zechariah? God's revelations to these 
prophets belong to the Hebrew period of Egyptian history; their accomplish- 
ments are scattered through all the periods of the future, as well as through 
th^ one that is transpiring. 1. Isaiah stands at the head of this list of Jeho- 
vah's prophetic servants. Let us examine the leading features of his Egyptian 
predictions. His prophecies were uttered in "the days of XJzziah, Jotham, 
AhaK and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." B. C. 760 to B. C. 698. The principal 
kings of Egypt against whom he utters his predictions are Pharaoh, Nechos 
and Pharaoh-Hophra. Jehovah's workings in Egypt are also clearly described- 
in Isaiah vii, 18. Jehovah calls upon Egypt to aid him in the punishment 
of Ms rebellious family. The prophet, (Isa. xl,) sees the land of Egypt under 
the Messiah's reign of subjugation, when Judah and Israel shall dwell at peace 
(as one nation), in their own land. To that period we assign our remarks on 
this most graphic delineation of the future. Isaiah xix presents a gloomy 
picture of Egypt passing through a severe civil war under twelve tyrants, suc- 
ceeded by Psammeticus, who reigned for 54 years. From verses 18 to 25 are 
some remarkable predictions, especially verses 19, 20, 23, 24 and 25, but as 
they do not belong to the period of Egyptian history now under review, we 
shall omit their present consideration. A national sin of his people is re- 
proved in Isaiah xxx. They looked to Egypt for help rather than to God. 
This was an insult to Jehovah. It presents a picture of Egypt's national 
standing in this period. The overthrow of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar is pre- 
dicted in Jeremiah xliii, 10-13. Egypt was not, perhaps, fully subjugated by 
Nebuchadnezzar. This king was a Khedive like their present governor- 



40 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Jeremiah utters God's judgments against Pharaoh-Hophra, xliv, 30, and also 
against Pharaoh Necho in xlvi. With this, God's denunciations against Egypt 
by Jeremiah close. By Ezekiel, God's denunciations against Egypt are very 
distinct and exceedingly severe. They show God's absolute sovereignity over 
that land and its nationality. Let us turn to his predictions. 

god's predictions. 

From Ezekiel xx, V-IO, it appears that the Hebrews practiced the idolatry 
of the Egyptians. For that reason God led them out of that land to another 
flowing with milk and honey; a land which was the glory of all lands; cast- 
ing out its idolatrous inhabitants that they might not again be allured to idol- 
atry. Ezekiel xxiii, 19. The two great national sins for which Egypt was 
put under the severe judgments of Jehovah were pride and idolatry. Phar- 
aoh Hophra had established his throne so securely as to defy the power of 
any God to overthrow it. He said in the pride of his glory: "My river is 
mine; I have made it." (The Nile.) This boasting of Pharaoh drew upon 
him the anger of the Almighty, who said to Ezekiel: "Nebuchadnezzar, (my 
servant,) king of Babylon, caused his army to serve a. great service against 
Tyrus; every head (was) made bald and every shoulder was peeled; yet had 
he no wages, nor his army for Tyrus, for the service he had served against it. 
I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar: and he shall take her mul- 
titude and take her spoil and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his 
army. I have given him the land of Egypt (for) his labor wherewith he 
served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel 
xxix, 18-21. "I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand 
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he and his people with him, the ter- 
rible of the nations shall be brought to destroy the land; and they shall draw 
their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. And I will 
make the rivers dry and sell the land into the hands of the wicked; and I will 
make the land waste and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers. I, the 
Lord, have spoken (it). I will also destroy (their) idols and I will cause (their) 
images to cease out of Noph (Memphis); and there shall be no more a prime 
(supreme ruler) of the land (native) of Egypt; and I will put a fear in the land 
of Egypt," Ezekiel xxx, 10-14. (See the entire chapter and part of the next.) 
For the accomplishment of these predictions see II Kings and II Chronicles. 
These contests between the kings of Babylon and the kings of Egypt contin- 
ued till the overthrow of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, God's special servant. 

CLOSE OP Egypt's supremacy. 

With this overthrow closed Egypt's supremacy. It became a "base" or 
tributary kingdom. Netanebus was the last king of Egyptian extraction, A. 
M. 3654, B. C 350. We are henceforward to trace the history of Egypt, 
either as a tributary kingdom or under a monarch of foreign birth. The 
philosophy of her destiny aifords us lessons of deep interest. Its history 
during the Hebrew period is composed of a series of effects flowing from 
legitimate causes. God's claims to the sovereignity of Egypt are repeatedly 



EGYPTIAN PHASE, 41 

enunciated. He is the sovereign of the people and the proprietor of the 
land. He declares his right to give or hire the land, as he thinks proper. 
This is clearly seen in his conduct towards his servant, Nebuchadnezzar, 
after his thirteen years' siege of Tyre. 

Jehovah appears to reason as follows: "Tyre having become proud and 
corrupt, I resolved to destroy it. I made use of the King of Babylon for 
that purpose. The siege of thirteen years was exceedingly laborious and ex- 
pensive. There was no booty in it, for the wealthy citizens of Tyre had 
conveyed in ships their valuables to an island. Egypt is mine; I will there- 
fore give Nebuchadnezzar Egypt for his wages and for the payment of his 
army." But what has been the great national sin of Egypt? Pride and idol- 
atry. Pharaoh Hophra had said: "My river (Nile) is mine; I have made it 
for myself." This was false and impious. He might have constructed a few 
canals for a more perfect irrigation, but who made the drainage for more 
than a third of the African continent? Who opened the Ethiopian fountains 
and filled the channels of the Nile? For mortal man to utter such language 
is a crime of the first magnitude. Such pride demands a fall. The idolatry 
of Egypt was a national sin, deserving immediate punishment. Egypt, ac- 
cording to her light, should have known and worshipped the true God. The 
ten plagues were still fresh in their recollection. The fate of Amemophis II 
should have taught them the existence and power of the Hebrew God; yet, 
in the face of all the wonders in the land of Ham, they were the worshippers 
of animals and reptiles, among which were cats and crocodiles. By their in- 
telligence in human learning, they drew to their valley the great of 
other nations, They led the people of God, (the Jews), into their idolatry. 
Even Solomon, with all his wisdom, was corrupted by his Egyptian wife. So 
it was with other Hebrew kings. 

EXPLANATION OP ISAIAH XIX, 25. 

Relative to the future of the earth, the Bible ennunciates one central 
thought around which all others, as a family, revolve. Thus speaks Jeho- 
vah : "But (as) truly (as) I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory 
of the Lord." Num. xiv, 21. During the age, or reign (ofiicial) of subju- 
gation shall there dwell on the earth subjugated nations, so that Messiah 
will then be the reigning King of reigning kings and living Lord of liv- 
ing lords. Rev. xix, 16. That being established, our inquiry will then be: 
What nations, what their territory and their rank? These questions we 
shall consider as they are elements of the Eastern problem. It is not sim- 
ply what shall be their position and agency in the coming struggle, but 
what shall be their subjugated positions? We desire (as far as the Bible 
will afford light) to follow these nations into and through the official 
reign; into the joint reign of the new earth. The destinies of certain 
distinct nations will afford us data. 

Three families are named in Isaiah xix, 25. Three national families 
are placed prominently before us. By their condition we decide the state 
of the world at that period. What is said of these three nations^ "A 
blessing on Egypt my people, Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, 



42 THE EASTEBTSr QUESTION, 

mine inheritance." The nature of the blessing here pronounced is not 
stated. It will, however, be suited to the dignity and power of the donor. 
This passage will be more fully examined when we speak of Israel and 
Assyria. One general remark will, perhaps, be in place, viz., the relation- 
ship existing between these three nations. 

For many centuries the land of Israel was the Switzerland of the 
East; especially was it the bone of contention between its western and 
eastern neighbors. Egypt and Assyria, each conquering, claimed the land 
of i^romise, in its turn. Such severe chastisements were allowed by Je- 
hovah for Israel's transgressions. Their success filled them with national 
pride. "My river is mine, I have made it for myself," says Pharaoh 
Hophra. "Is not this great Babylon that I have made by the might of my 
power?" No sooner uttered than their robes were taken from them and 
they were driven from their thrones. Egypt became a base kingdom and 
Assyria ceased to be a nationality. Great national sins are expiated fey 
severe national judgments. For the abuse of God's family and his inheri- 
tance, they were first required to pay the penalty. After that it was 
proper that they should receive pay natioijally for any service they had 
rendered. 

What has Egypt received for the home given to the Hebrews from 
the elevation of Joseph to the commencement of their bondage? It is the 
land of which we are speaking and not the race of Ham. If the whole 
earth is to be full of Jehovah's brightness, Egypt, being a part, must 
have its portion. So, also, will the land of Assyria. 

EGYPT UNDER BABYLON. 

Of this period, but little, in addition to our previous statements, is 
required. During forty years after its humiliation by Nebuchadnezzar, its 
trials were severe; some of its inhabitants were carried into Babylon; 
others into the various provinces. Jehovah's proprietorship is distinctly 
seen. It was Nebuchadnezzar's wages for his doing God's work against 
Tyre. "Egypt is mine," says Jehovah, "and I will give it to the king 
of Babylon." This is Egypt's first period of humiliation. Her proud 
spirit trembled under God's sore judgments. Her lofty mountains were 
swift witnesses against her. 

EGYPT UNDER PERSIA, 

This period extends to the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the 
Great (B. C. 332). It begins (B. C. 525) when Egypt was taken from 
Babylon by Cambyses. It was a period of great oppression, exhibiting the 
continued judgments of God for their former pride and idolatry, fulfilling 
the prediction: "There shall be no more a prince (native) of Egypt." 
Ezek. XXX, 13. God's judgments are extended over many generations. 

EGYPT UNDER GREECE. 

This period extends from the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the 
Great to its overthrow by the Romans, B. C. 30. This period is one of 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 43 

very considerable interest. Its change of masters was quite favorable to 
the valley of the Nile. So happy were the Egyptians that they viewed 
Alexander as a savior rather than a conqueror. On the death of Alex- 
ander a new dynasty was inaugurated, the dynasty of the Ptolemies, 
The government, language, administration, philosophy, science, arts, liter- 
ature and its religion, in part, became Greek. The coui't of the Ptolemies, 
however, was not pagan in the common acceptation of that term. Under 
the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it became a distinguished seat of 
learning and refinement. Under his patronage, the museum and library 
were founded and the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek 
called the Septuagint (because it was made by seventy-two persons). Man- 
etho, under that reign drew up his Egyptian history. Under his succes- 
sors the Egyptian monarchy was much extended. Their conquests ex- 
tended at times into Ethiopia and over southwestern Asia, including the 
land of Israel. 

After the reign of Euergetes, Philopater, Epiphanes, Philometer, Euer- 
getes II, Sotor II, Cleopatra (B. C. 106), Alexander (B. C. 87), Neos Dio- 
nysis (B. C. 61), and of Cleopatra II, following the battle of Actium (B* 
C. 30), it became a Roman province under a Roman governor, not of the' 
sentorial, but of the equestrian rank — a base kingdom. 

CLOSE OF THIS PERIOD. 

We cannot close this period of Egyptian history without calling at, 
tention to the visible workings of its Supreme Governor — the power be- 
hind the throne. Noah's three sons had, during the ages immediately suc- 
ceeding the flood and after the confusion of tongues, taken distant homes- 
Asia, Africa and Europe, but at the time of which we are now writing' 
their descendants had become somewhat mixed up. This was more partic, 
nlarly true of Egypt. As the soil of Egypt was formed of particles 
wafted there by the waters of the Nile from more than one-third of 
Africa, so did its early civilization draw the inquisitive of all races to see 
and learn its laws, government and its architectural wonders. 

Egypt, originally Hamitic, having for centuries been Shemetic, now- 
under Alexander and his successors, becomes Japhetic or European. Out 
of three races a new Egyptian is created, a new man destined to another 
sphere, is put into possession of this beautiful valley, this second paradise. 
Who cannot discern the hand of God in these three ethnological changes? 
Men, in their various attributes must be adapted to their work. Idolatrous 
Egypt, as it existed under the Pharaohs, (crocodiles,) could never have 
carried out the designs of Jehovah under the twelve Ptolemies, B. C. 332 
to B. C. 30. These three centuries accomplished a great work in mould- 
ing Egyptian character for a new and more elevated position. 

This change had to do more with the religious thought of the nation 
than with its physical and political ideas. From the most debasing of 
nature worship, such as deifying dogs, cats and crocodiles, they were to 
learn the character of the one true God. Such new thoughts required a 
new man. This new man was a mixture of Hebrew, Macedonian and 
th*^ old Egyptian stock. 



44 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ALEXANDER. 

Alexander founded a new city (Alexandria) in Epypt. To this new 
city of European architecture Alexander invited citizens of all nations. 
Among those solicited to become residents of Alexandria were Jews, who 
were allowed to come with their religion, given by God to Moses. Nearly 
100,000 Jews were carried into Egypt. They increased to one million and 
a-half, had a temple and worship. This new worship changed the relig- 
ious character of Egypt. By the Greek (Septuagint) translation of the 
Hebrew Bible (the Greek language was almost universal), God's ancient 
revelations could be read by all nations. God was preparing a people 
in Egypt to teach all nations the future gospel of his beloved Son. This 
was, therefore, a preparatory period. During the one hundred years of 
the dynasty of the Ptolomies. Judea was under the domination of Egypt, 
such an element must have had great power in shaping religious thought. 

Ptolomy Philadelphus made Egypt exceedingly prosperous. He reigned 
over 33,339 populous cities. With a large fleet in the Mediterranean and 
one in the Red Sea, Egypt became the mart of all nations. This period 
covers that of Apocrypha, noted for the wonderful exploits of the Macca- 
bees. 

Under Ptolomy V, surnamed Epiphanes (Illustrious), the Jews of 
■^gyptj as well as of Judea, suffered a severe persecuti®n. This tended 
to scatter the seeds of correct religious thought. 

EGYPT UNDER ROME. 

This period extends from the battle of Actium (B. C. 30), to its con- 
quest by Omar, the Mohammedan Caliph, A. D. 640-670 years. It is a 
period of very considerable interest, since it covers the first six and one- 
half centuries of the Christian era. We have seen that the land of Egypt, 
under the Macedonian dynasty, had on its soil a mixture of the three families 
Ham, Shem and Japheth. This mixture of the races progressed under the 
Roman empire. Egypt, being the half-way house, the world's hotel, the national 
toll-gate, the world's seminary, the land of monuments and wonders, the world's 
bazaar, was visited by strangers of all nationalities and of all varieties of 
religious thought. As a nation it was still sinking, having a Roman gov- 
ernor of the equestrian order. Two features in this period of Egyptian 
history claim attention. 1. That it became a house of refuge; after that 
a house of bondage. 2. God first made Egypt a house of refuge for his 
Son when his life was hunted by Herod. "When they [the wise men] 
were departed, behold the angel of the Lord appeareth unto Joseph in a 
dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and 
flee into Egypt and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will 
seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose he took the 
young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was 
there until the death of Herod. In this was fulfilled that which was spoken 
of the Lord by the prophet (Hos. xi, 1), saying. Out of Egypt have I 
called my Son." Matt, ii, 13-15. Why flee into Egypt? Three reasons 
may be given. a. God claimed a special proprietorship over Egypt. 



FGYPTIAN PHASE. 45 

b. His worship was there established and consequently a home was pro- 
vided for His son among his own household, c. Egypt was the most con- 
venient land beyond Herod's jurisdiction. Here, also, the gospel of 
Christ was to work a reformation in the religious ideas of the Egyptians; 
that the land in which idolatry had its origin should be the foster-mother 
of the Christian system agrees with the method of divine providence. Dur- 
ing the second century the gospel exerted great power over Egypt. The 
residence of the Jews in that country prepared the Egyptian mind to re- 
ceive the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, but the paganism of the 
Roman empire (the ruler of Egypt during this period), had so far cor- 
rupted the pure doctrines of Christ that the Egyptians saw but little in 
the Christian worship but a mixture of Judaism and Paganism. Long be- 
fore the birth of Mohammed, the Greek empire (whose capital was Con- 
stantinople), patronized a Christian worship that had but little in common 
with the doctrines of Christ and his apostles. Image worship had be- 
come very general. During this period (near its close) the bishop of 
Rome became the head of the apostate church. Egypt was being pre- 
pared for another revolution in her religious thoughts. During the Roman 
period of Egyptian history her political and her educational resources were 
on the decline, and, with them, her productions to sustain life were 
diminishing also. God was evidently becoming dissatisfied with his 
Egyptian tenants and was rearing a neighboring power to effect another 
great moral social and national revolution. To this extraordinary change 
we are now prepared to turn our thoughts. 

CAN .THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF A PEOPLE BE CHANGED WITHOUT THE 
SUBVEKSION OP ITS POLITICAL SYSTEM. 

This problem has a direct bearing on Mohammedan Egypt. We pro- 
pose, therefore, to attempt its solution. Has man, by nature, a natural 
sense — the power of judging between right and wrong — or is it the crea- 
ture of education? Both these questions may, in a certain degree, be an- 
swered in the affirmative. Man, by nature, has such an element. Educa- 
tion is required for its development. As a nation is the aggregate of its 
population, its character is the sura of its individual characters. Since 
man is a "religious animal," (worship of some kind being his normal 
state,) his religion shapes his moral character and his gods shape his re- 
ligion, the character of every nation varying with the attributes of its 
divinities. A nation that has cats, dogs and crocodiles for its deities, must 
partake more or less of their attributes and consequently becomes morally 
degraded. 

Egypt's religious history has been exceedingly varied. Her early his- 
tory makes her the mother of debasing idolatry. Her monuments and her 
political institutions show in every age the footprints of her religion. 

During her monumental period Egypt was under other moral influ- 
ences than her nature worship. The shepherd kings and the soujourn of 
the Hebrews, gave birth to new religious thoughts. These new moral ele- 
ments tended to elevate and protect the political constitution. Jehovah 



46 THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION, 

taught by his prophets his sovereign claim to the land of Egypt and his 
right fo rule monarchs. Her prosperity was in the ratio of her submis- 
sion to his divine government. 

During the Hebrew monarchy Egypt had a great increase of moral 
light. The intercourse between Egypt and Israel during the reigns of 
David, Solomon and the Py kings, each of Israel and Judah, was such as 
to create for the land of the Pharaohs a new moral constitution and under 
Alexander and his successors (the Ptolemies), the old moral constitution 
died out — was superseded by a new system of religious thought. Under 
the Roman empire Egypt was full of a mixture of moral ideas composed 
of Pagan, Jewish and Christian. During these changes the old political 
systems were on the decline and finally passed away. 

History has demonstrated that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but 
sin is a reproach to any people," Prov. xiv, 34; and that religious and po- 
litical ideas are so intimately associated that one cannot change or die 
without a corresponding in the other. This truth will further appear as 
we advance. 

EGYPT UNDEK MOHAMMEDAN ARABIA A. D. 640 TO A. D. 1250. 

Egypt fell under the dominion of the Mohammedan Saracens, under the 
Caliph Omar, who had taken Jerusalem and had erected the mosque bearing his 
name, now standing on the site of the old temple. This conquest introduced a 
new era in Egypt, a revolution in its religious and civil institutions. The Ko- 
ran contained a new system of religion and at the same time it had a 
code of jurisprudence adapted to the wants of the new religious empire. 
One of the first acts of the Arabian dynasty was the burning of the Alex 
andrian library. Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt, wrote to Omar, relative 
to what disposition should be made of the library. His answer was: "If 
these writings of the Greeks, (Greek Christians) agree with the book of 
God, (the Koran,) they are useless and need not be preserved; if they dis- 
agree they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed." "The volumes of 
paper or parchment was distributed to the four thouaand baths of the city and 
such was their incredible multitude that six months were barely suificient for 
the consumption of this precious fuel," says Gibbon. The size and gran- 
deur of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, shows its condition at that time. 
Amrou thus describes it: "I have taken the great city of the West. It 
is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty and 
I shall content myself with observing that it contains four thousand pal- 
aces, four thousand baths, four hundred theaters or places of amusement, 
twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food and forty thousand 
tributary Jews." Egypt had become full of monks and idols of nominal 
Christianity, for we may safely affirm that Egypt has never seen pure 
Christianity. What changes took place under the Arabian dynasty. 

The changes will be described under two heads — (1.) Ecclesiastical; 
(2.) Civil — those of church and state. 

Egypt, coming under a new foreign master, must put forth a growth 
of new religious ideas, those contained in the Koran, which sprang from 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 47 

the brain of the Arabian prophet. Mohammed, in that system, takes the 
place of Jesus; the sword is their gospel of persuasion. At the beginning of 
the Arabian dynasty, the Greek population of Egypt, who were idolatrous 
Christians, constituted about one-tenth of its inhabitants, while the remain- 
ing nine-tenths were Jews and natives. It is said that scarcely any na- 
tive abandoned his old religious ideas. The cat, the dog and the crocodile 
were still his deities, and therefore he looked with sullen hatred at the 
Christian abuse of those sacred animals. They regarded the Arabians as 
their deliverers, since nothing was required but tribute. The religious 
sentiment was changed only by the addition of a new element. The 
social and political ideas passed through a more serious revolution. The 
morals of the Koran affected the organization of Egyptian society and its 
civil jurisprudence was quite unlike what they had ever experienced. 
Their government was a royal priesthood, the chief ruler, the Caliph, re- 
siding at Mecca. This subjugation of Egypt was a judicial overthrow, in- 
tended by Jehovah as a deadly thrust at its hated idolatry, the worship 
of animals by the natives, of images by the Greek Christians, and of the 
rejection of his Son by the Jews. These three kinds of worship were ex- 
ceedingly offensive to the Deity. He sent the Arabian as an executor 
of his wrath. 

EGYPT STILL DEGENERATING. 

Egypt, under the Arabian dynasty, was still degenerating. Nature 
smiled with its usual Eden beauty, but its population had no vigor of 
moral, political or intellectual vitality. During the 610 years of Arabian 
domination there were three dominant families — 1. The Tbontounides, A. 
D. 868; 2. The Akshidide; 3. The Fatemite, A. D. 969. Under the Fa- 
temites, who ruled Egypt until A. D. 1250, Cairo was built and Egypt 
gained some of its former prosperity, but towards the conclusion of that 
dynasty wealth introduced luxury, and, like Rome, slaves as domestics, 
(they were called Mamelukes, from memalik, slave,) were introduced by 
their higher officera. In A. D. 1214, there was formed from these (Geor- 
gian and Circassian slaves chosen for their beauty and strength) a body of 
cavalry. They governed Egypt 263 years. In 1291 they expelled the 
Christian crusaders from Palestine. They continued a military power till 
A. D. 1810 and in A. D. 1811 v/ere treacherously annihilated by Mohammed 
Ali. This body of cavalry was mounted on splendid Turkish horses, splen- 
didly caparisoned. They formed the most efficient body of cavalry that 
the world ever saw. Their recruits were Georgians, Circassians, Turks, 
and Tartars. About the year 1250 they became so numerous as to make 
one of their own number Sultan of Egypt, putting an end to the Fatemite, 
the last of the Arabian dynasty. 

The Mameluke dynasty had two subordinate dynasties, 1. The Bahar- 
ites, continuing till 1382; 2. The Borjites, reigning till A. D. 1517. "The 
Caucasian element predominated in the first dynasty, the Tartare lement 
in the second." The second dynasty was overthrown by Selim I, A. D. 
1517, yet 24 Mameluke beys were kept, as one of the conditions of Selim's 



48 THE EASTBRIf QUESTION, 

•conquest, to rule over the provinces. Under Selim I began the Turkish 
domination in Egypt. 

EGYPT UNDER THE TURK, FROM A. D. 1517 TO A. D. 1840 — 323 TO 328 TEARS. 

This period covers a few years over three centuries, a period of great 
interest in Egyptian history, a period peculiar in its power to recast 
Egyptian character and to prepare it to occupy its destined position in 
the approaching age. Every change is, therefore, to the student of proph- 
ecy, fraught with the most thrilling interest. It is not what Egypt has 
been, but what she will be, that attracts our attention. We have examined 
the forty-two centuries of her past history to obtain the key to her future 
destiny. What is Egypt's position in the age of subjugation and in the 
joint reign of the new creation? These are problems difficult of solution 
but involving matters of great moment. We often speak of Christ's per- 
sonal reign on the new earth or on this earth made new, but say very lit- 
tle about the preparatory work of that endless era. Paul says that "He 
(Christ) must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet;" "all rule, 
and authority and power," I Cor. xv, 24, 26. Where is there a nation 
now existing that is not an enemy to Christ's personal reign? Where is 
there a nation that forms an element in the stone increased to a moun- 
tain, rather than a part of the metallic image? When the whole world, 
with its kings, rulers and emperors, is gathered by the dragon, the beast 
and the false prophet into Satan's army, at the battle of the great day, 
what nation is not there in one of the two opposing armies? 

Some hold that the reign named by Paul is now in progress; that the 
reign of subjugation belongs to this age. Against that view there are many 
serious objections. We do not here intend to discuss that question. A few 
points, however, are pertinent to our present subject. So far, allow us to pm 
forward our views. 

1. Christ undertook a work which divides itself into three parts. 2. He 
is to do the work himself and not by an agent, since it is a work that no other 
person can do. 3. It being necessarily a personal work it requires his per- 
sonal presence and since no substitute can do the work, Christ's presence (per- 
sonal) is absolutely required. 

What is that work? The work required to save one human being; the 
Messiah's work? What are its three divisions? (a.) The work of a prophet 
like unto Moses. Did this work allow any substitute? It seems not; at least 
Christ thought that it required his personal presence since he came in person 
and did the work, (b.) The work of the antitypical High Priest. Did this 
work require his personal presence in the most holy place (heaven) ? Christ 
thought so for he went there in person to do the work. So thought Paul when 
he said that he could not be a priest on earth. Two parts of his work have 
required his personal presence, (c.) The third division is the work of a king, 
a subjugating work and the establishment of a kingdom. Where is that work 
to be accomplished? All admit that the work has the earth for its location. 
If the work does not require the presence of the Nobleman, why does he 
return when he receives the kingdom from his father? This work must also 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 49 

require his personal presence. When Christ returns he finds the earth full of 
hostile nations. He subdues them and rules them and rules over them as a 
personal, present King of personal and present kings. "The Lord shall send 
the rod of thy strength out of Zion; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies," 
Ps. ex, 2. Read the whole Psalm. His work of subjugation is, therefore a 
personal work. He utters his voice from Jerusalem. As Judah's lion he roars 
out of Zion. We seek to know the position of every nation in that conflict 
and every land during that age of subjugation. 

HAD THE CREATOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE IN THE SIZE OF THE EARTH? 

Had the Creator of the earth any special purpose in its magnitude and 
shape? If human actions are the results of purpose, how infinitely more the 
works of the Divine Architect. Tlie earth was created to be the abode of a 
countless variety of living organisms, filling its waters, its lands and its atmos- 
phere? But why so large? Why such a huge space of lava, rock and earth? 
Why such a waste of space of material? Why such a variety of zones? 
^uch extremes of heat and cold? Such oceans, seas, lakes and rivers? Such 
mountains and deserts? If man was formed to be its resident viceroy, why 
such vast unoccupied regions? What purpose in elevating Africa above the 
ocean? Why elevate its mountains, construct its lakes, rivers and pestilential 
marshes? Why cover 1,500,000 square miles of its surface with a desert of 
torrid sands and burning rocks? Why cover its fertile districts with beasts 
venomous reptiles and savage races, from whose moral natures the imprint of 
the Deity is quite indistinct or obliterated? 

Follow the steps of Murray, Leyden, the Arabian Ebn Batuta, Leo Afri- 
canus, the German Ran wolf, the Englishmen Jobson and Thompson, Renouard 
the Jesuit Lobo, Thevenot, Ledyard and Lucas, the French Expedition; and in 
the 19th century Mungo Park, Burchard, Oudney, Clapperton, Denham and 
Lander; the missionaries, Moffatt and Livingstone, and a host of others whose 
bones are whitening on its desert sands. Trace the progress of the American 
explorer, H. M. Stanley from Zanzibar to the sources of the White Nile, across 
the watershed to the sources of the Congo and to its mouth (2500 miles), amid 
pestilental swamps, fighting cannibals clamoring to feast upon his flesh, down 
cataracts and over snow-clad mountains, suffering the extremes of a malarial 
climate ! 

Why such a continent, such a climate and such a people? Was it cre- 
ated to dishonor the wisdom and love of its creator for some thousand years 
and then suddenly be burned as a failure in the calculations of the Almighty? 
Who can solve this African enigma without a personal reign of the Messiah? 
It has often been said that Africa has had the Gospel and has rejected the 
Gospel. What part of Africa had it? What was the nature of that Gospel? 
Egypt had a spurious Gospel. So had parts of Ethiopia, but when did the 
glad tidings ever reach the masses of that benighted continent? When did 
they ever hear of Messiah's fame of see his glory? 

In the present construction of the globe, the temperate zones furnish pas- 
sable locations for human abodes, but the torrid and frigid belts are under the 
blighting effects of the curse. Its physical laws are not adapted to a sinless 
race. 



50 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Why so large ? An earth one-fifth its size would have fully satisfied 
all past demands. If the earth in its present land and water distribution 
is soon to be burned, where is the wisdom in its immense magnitude and 
mighty wastes ? 

With a reign of subjugation continuing 1,000 years, or 360,000 years, 
when not only the creature, but the earth itself shall be delivered from 
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of 
God. The work of Messiah's personal official reign ! how extended ! how 
grand ! how glorious ! Who cannot most devoutly pray, " Thy kingdom 
come ; Thy will be done on earth as in heaven ?" 

Egypt under Turkey, A. D. 1517 to A. D. 1840-5—323-8. During this 
period of about three centuries, Egypt continued to decline. Though she 
had, nominally, a new foreign master, the Mamelukes were her real mas- 
ters. The 24 beys governed the provinces. But there was too great a 
variety of religious elements for national prosperity. The Greek Chris- 
tian, the Jew, the Mohammedan and the Ancient Egyptian. Views so 
dissimilar resulted in conflicting social and political interests. The 
stronger social tendency was towards the dominant religion, that of the 
Koran. The religion and the laws of that Mohammedan bible gave to 
Egypt a character which is peculiarly destructive to pure morals. 

But there is a more important part of this period, extending from the 
temporary conquest of Egypt by the French under Napoleon, August 22d, 
1799, to the rebellion of Mohammed Ali and his restrictions by the Euro- 
pean power, A. D. 1841-5. 

The design of Napoleon, in his invasion of Egypt, was to rob the 
English of their East India possessions, by having the control of the land 
of the Pharaohs. Had the French armies in Europe been successful, his 
designs would have been accomplished ; but sad news from the continent 
soon recalled him. Kleber was left in possession of Egypt, which he held 
till 1801, when, by aid of the British, it was again restored to Turkey, who 
still nominally govern the country. Napoleon and Kleber attached the 
Egyptians to the French by doing everything in their power to ameliorate 
the condition of the country. 

There were continued conflicts between the Turks and the Mame- 
lukes, till that body that had really governed Egypt for four centuries 
were treacherously massacred by Mohammed Ali in 1811. 

The rule of Mohammed Ali, was far superior to that of the Mame- 
lukes in its order and humanity. He was nominally the Viceroy of the 
Turkish Sultan, though, in fact, quite independent of his power. He 
made great conquests, and in various battles with the Turkish forces, 
nearly overthrew the Ottoman Empire. His conquests were ended by a 
peace forced upon him by the European powers. In 1840 the Sultan hav- 
ing recovered from his former reverses, began hostilities again. His 
armies being annihilated, the European powers came to his rescue the sec- 
ond time ; and by treaty, July 13th, 1841, stripped Mohammed of all his 
Asiatic conquests, made his government in Egypt tributary to Turkey and 
hereditary in his descendants. Ibrahim Pasha died Sept. 1, 1848, one year 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 51 

before Mohammed Ali, his father. Nubia became a province of Egypt in 
1820. Abbas Pasha, Mohammed's grandson, succeeded him and was re- 
placed by Said Pasha in 1854. 

Mohammed Ali introduced many improvements into Egypt. He in- 
creased the security of its population, improved its irrigation, and intro- 
duced European manners and customs, preparatory to European civiliza- 
tion ; yet he refused to grant the right to join by ship canal the Mediter- 
ranean and the Red seas. M. de Lesseps obtained the co-operation of the 
Egyptian government in his Suez canal enterprise under Said Pasha. In 
1863 Said was succeeded to the Egyptian government by his nephew 
Ismail, who, by the Sultan's permission, took in 1866 the hereditary title 
of Khedive (from the Persian Khidiv — sovereign). The throne of Egypt 
was then made to descend in a direct line from father to son, and not to 
the eldest heir according to the Turkish law. The Khedive was also 
granted, in 1873, the right of maintaining armies, and of concluding 
treaties (withdrawn in 1879). By the co-operation of Sir Samuel Baker, 
and the governor of Soudan, Gordon Pasha, the Khedive made quite a 
successful effort to suppress the slave trade in his dominions. 

In 1875 the Khedive sold to Great Britain 177,000 shares in the Suez 
canal (completed and opened in 1869) for £4,000,000. The condition of 
the Egyptian finances was almost hopelessly involved, when in 1875 the 
revenue was put under the management of European commissioners. 
Prince Hassan, third son of Ismail Pasha, with 10,000 men, fought for the 
Crescent in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. The new financial system 
having proved unsuccessful, another commission of inquiry was appointed; 
and ere long it was announced that the Khedive had absolutely accepted 
the European system of constitutional government, and had made Nubar 
Pasha head of a reformed administration. The summary dismissal of this 
minister in April 1879, was followed by the interference of the European 
governments. The Khedive, who declined voluntarily to abdicate, was, at 
the instance of the western powers, deposed by his suzerain (Sultan) in 
June, and prince Tewfik (the present Khedive), Ismail's eldest son, was 
proclaimed viceroy of Egypt. Ismail retired to Rome, where he now re- 
sides, being paid an annuity of $1,000,000. Such was the political state of 
Egypt when the uprising of the native population, and the slaughter of 
the Europeans in Alexandria (June 11) took place. 

The most noted enterprise of this period of Egyptian history is the 
completion of the Suez canal. The construction of that canal marks the 
commencement of a new era in the existence of that remarkable country; 
an event that bears directly on the future destinies of all nations. An en- 
terprise of so great a bearing on the world's destinies, should (within itself) 
have sufficient interest to excite a desire, in every one, to learn more of its 
history. For the benefit of many of our readers we subjoin the following 
items. 

Suez and its Ship Canal. — The Isthmus of Suez is a neck of land, in 
its narrowest portion, 72 miles wide from the gulf of Suez on the south, to 
the Meditarranean Sea on the north. It connects Africa with Asia. It 



52 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

has within its limits the Hebrew land of Goshen, once fertile, but now a 
wretched waste of sand, sandstone, and salt swamps, with scarcely any 
fresh water. In very ancient times, far back in the geological ages, the 
two seas were, probably, connected. But, by the gradual elevation of this 
part of the two continents, the seas retired, leaving salt lakes and salt 
marshes. This barren waste, has, in various ages of the world, suggested 
for solution, this great problem : can a water passage be made so as to con- 
nect these seas? Such a canal was constructed many centuries ago. 

According to Herodotus, one was first made by Pharaoh-Necho B. C. 
600; completed, however, as some say, by the Ptolemies. It ran from one 
mile and a half below Suez, and in a northwest course to Bubastis, on the 
eastern, or Pelusiac branch of the Nile ; thence this branch connected the 
canal with the Mediterranean Sea. Its entire length was 92 miles, 60 
miles being cut by man. It was 108 to 165 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. 
This was choked up with sand ; opened by Amrou the Arabian conqueror 
of Egypt, who named it, "Canal of the Prince of the Faithful." After one 
century it was filled with the sands (A. D. 762). Thus it has remained to 
the present time. 

Napoleon, when in Egypt, had the isthmus surveyed, when it was re- 
ported that the surface of the Mediterranean Sea was 30 feet below the sur- 
face of the Red Sea. In 1847 France, England and Austria, sent a com- 
mission to measure accurately the levels of the two seas. Their report 
was, " The two seas have exactly the same mean level." Another survey 
was made in 1853, with the same results. 

In 1856 M. de Lesseps obtained from the Pasha the right to construct 
a' ship canal from Tynch (near the ruins of the ancient Pelusium) to Suez. 
M. de Lesseps' plan was to make the canal in a right line from sea to sea. 
A joint stock company was formed, and £8,000,000 were subscribed with 
400,000 shares. The Pasha took many shares. The canal was commenced, 
and opened for ships Nov., 1869. It was a work equal to almost any other 
human achievement. The canal is 85 miles long. Its piers at both seas 
are immense. The piers extend into the Mediterranean Sea on the west 
side 7,000 feet, on the east 6,000 feet; at the shore 4,600 feet apart, at the 
outer ends only 2,300 feet. The western pier is extended in an arc 1,100 
yards, and with the eastern pier shelters the ships from the winds. 

The stones of the northern piers are artificial, composed of sand and 
hydraulic lime, moulded into 20 ton blocks. There is another harbor 
within this outer harbor, which is 800x500 yards, and of a uniform depth 
of 30 feet. The light-house is 180 feet high, having an electric light. Port 
Said (a town of 10,500 inhabitants) is at the north end, and Suez (with 
15,000 inhabitants) at the Red Sea extremity. 

The canal, between these extremes runs through salt lakes, lagoons, 
swamps, deep sands, and rock elevations. Passing from Port Said to Suez 
it is divided into the following natural sections: 1. Menzaleh salt water 
lake, 20 miles; water from one foot to ten deep; 112 yards wide at the sur- 
face, 26 yards at the bottom and 26 feet deep, with stone banks on each 
side 15 feet high. 2. Land section from 15 feet to 30 feet deep and 11 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 53 

miles long. 3. Abu Ballah lake ; small lake, work lighter. 4. Land cut 
11 miles to Temsah lake, cutting through ground from 30 to 70 or 80 
feet deep. 5. Temsah lake, 3 miles. 6. El Guisr; deej)est cut in the 
line, being 85 feet below the surface; 112 yards wide at the water-level, 
and at the summit 173 yards. Ismailia, on Temsah lake, the half-way 
point, is a town of 5,400 inhabitants. Railways run from Ismailia to 
Alexandria and Suez. A fresh water canal runs from the Nile to Temsah 
lake. This supplies fresh water to the ship canal. 7. Toussoum and the 
Serapeum cutting, through a plateau 46 feet above the sea. This space is 
about 8 miles long and was dug from 32 to 62 feet deep. The quantity of 
sand removed was immense. 8. The Bitter lakes; much embanking. 
9. From the Bitter lakes to Suez, 13 miles. Heavy cuttings through the 
stony plateau of Chalouf, from 30 to 56 feet. The canal is 327 feet wide 
at the surface, 72 feet at the bottom and 26 feet deep. In November 
16, 1869, it was opened in form, with a procession of English and foreign 
steamers ; the Khedive, the empress of the French, the emperor of Austria 
and others being present ; also the crown-prince of Prussia. 

" On Nov. 27 the Brazilian went through ; a ship of 1809 tons, 380 feet 
long, 30 feet broad, and drawing from 17^ to 20^ feet of water. Since that 
the canal has continued in successful operation, and passages have been 
made almost daily, chiefly by British vessels. The cost of construction to 
Dec. 1869, was estimated at £11,627,000. In 1870, 491 ships of 436,618 tons, 
passed through ; and in 1874, 1264 ships, of 2,424,000 tons. About 70 per 
cent, of the shipping and tonage belongs to Great Britain." 

The immense value of this canal lies in its shortening distances be- 
tween Europe and India. From London to Bombay by the cape is 11,220 
miles, by Suez Canal, 6,332, shortening the voyage 24 days. The rate of 
passage through the canal is 5 to 6 knots an hour. Canal charge, 10 francs 
per ton, 10 francs per head for passengers. Receipts for 1876, £1,245,750. 
Rapidly increasing. 

PRELUDE. — 1. WHAT DOES THE DRYING UP OF THE EUPHRATES SYMBOLIZE? 

This question with the one following it, was recently sent me by our 
faithful and beloved brother, Newell Bond, of Washington City. These 
questions were suggested by the article, on that subject, by J. Cameron, in 
Rainbow ; published in The Restitution. 

We cannot, in these preludes, or introductions, give anything more 
than sketches, reserving their full investigation to their proper heads, 
when investigating the Turkish phase of the Eastern Question, should we 
be spared to reach that subject. 

Euphrates of Rev. xvi. 12. What is it? This question must first be 
answered. Is the Euphrates, in the passage above quoted, a symbolic, or 
literal river? It is usually said to be symbolic. If symbolic, what does it 
symbolize. Two answers are given to this question : 1. That it symbolizes 
the Turkish empire. 2. That it represents those Latin nations of Europe 
that upheld the Papacy. 3. A third answer makes it a literal river. 



54 • THK EASTERN QUESTION, 

The Euphrates is used in the Bible 21 times. In the Old Testament 
19 times; viz: Gen. ii. 14, xv. 18; Deut. i. 7, xi. 24; Josh. i. 4; 2 Sam. 
viii. 3; 2 Kings xxiii. 29, xxiv. 7; 1 Ch. v. 9, xviii. 3; 2 Gh. xxxv. 20; 
Jer. xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7, xlvi. 2, 6, 10, li. 3. In the 19 passages, the literal river 
is always intended. In the New Testament, the Euphrates is twice named : 
both being found in the Apocalypse. In Rev. ix. 14, are these words, 
" Loose the four angels, (messengers or agents) which are bound in (at) 
the great river Euphrates." The distinguished Commentator, Woodhouse 
says, " The great river Euphrates, a famous river, which had its rise in 
Paradise, (Gen. ii. 14) and runs through the frontiers of Cappadocia, Syria, 
Arabia, Deserta, Chaldea, and Mesopotamia, and falls into the Persian 
Gulf." — Calmet. All our learned expositors agree in calling the Euphra- 
tes, in this passage, the literal river of that name. The Ottoman empire 
is here a living acting agent, divided into four Sultanies, bound by some 
other agencies, at the Euphrates as an axis. The mystic (?) Euphrates 
bound at the literal Euphrates! With such an interpretation we do not 
agree. In 20 passages the term Euphrates is the name of the literal river. 
There remains but one other passage, Rev. xvi. 12. Is this the name of a 
symbolic river ? From this we have dissented for many years. We have 
not been able to reconcile that interpretation with the laws of symbols. 
One principle is evidently violated : When a word or object departs from 
the literal meaning, that departure is somewhere explained, if not it would 
be no part of God's revealed system. If, then, the word Euphrates is here 
a symbol, where is that symbol interpreted ? 

If the term Euphrates be the name of the literal river, it requires no 
explanation since it is distinctly defined in 20 passages ; but if, in this 21st 
passage it has a figurative (symbolic) meaning, where is that figure inter- 
preted ? For, to be a part of revelation, it must be explained somewhere. 
For an illustration of our meaning read Rev. i. 20. '' The mystery (sym- 
bol) of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven 
golden candlesticks," explained, — " The seven stars are the angels of the 
seven churches, and the seven candlesticks that thou sawest, are the seven 
churches." Look at the visions of Daniel and their divine interpretations. 
These explanations are necessary to make them elements of God's revealed 
purposes. We have, then, this rule, " where a term is used out of its ordi- 
nary sense, it must be explained somewhere ;" but Euphrates in Rev. xvi. 
12, is used out of its ordinary sense ; therefore, it must be explained, or 
defined somewhere. Where, then, is its interpretation ? If that interpre- 
tation is found anywhere in the Bible, it must be in Rev. xvii. 15. " The 
waters which thou sawest, where the whore (mystic Babylon) sitteth, are 
people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." But mystic Babylon 
was sustained by the Latin and German or Gothic kingdoms, and therefore, 
those kingdoms (mystic waters) have the same relationship to mystic 
Babylon, that the literal Euphrates had to the literal Babylon. No one 
pretends that mystic Babylon is the Mohammedan hierarchy; and yet the 
usual interpretation of Euphrates (Rev. xvi. 12), forces upon us such an 
interpretation. Since the Euphrates is not named, as the meaning of the 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 55 

waters in Rev. xvii. 15, we are obliged to say, that Euphrates of Rev. xvi. 
12, is the name of the literal river, which is spoken of in the 20 passages 
above quoted. What then is its drying up ? And who are the kings of 
the east? 



SECOND QUESTION— IS IT NECESSARY THAT THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SHOULD 
BE TOTALLY ANNIHILATED BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST FOR HIS 
PEOPLE ? 

The Ottoman, or Turkish empire is, simply, the present or reigning 
dynasty of the Mohammedan empire of the false prophet, Mohammed. 
That empire was equally powerful under its first or Arabian dynasty ; so 
it might be again. The empire of the Koran is the empire of the false 
prophet. If Mohammed Ali, viceroy of Egypt, had been allowed to over- 
throw the Ottoman dynasty, would the dominion of the false prophet have 
then terminated, or would it only have added a third dynasty to that em- 
pire ? Was not Mohammed Ali as sincere a Mohammedan as the Sultan ? 
The idea as we see it, is this: "The empire of the false prophet is not 
dependent for its existence upon the Turk. He may be driven from Con- 
stantinople, out of Anatolia, and beyond there, and yet, the dominion of 
the false prophet by means of the Koran might number its 180,000,000, 
and, under another dynasty or some pretender, an el Mehdi muster war- 
riors by the millions. The future great conflict is not simply with the 
Turk, but with Mohammedanism — it will be a religious war : the cross 
against the crescent, the wild beast and the Pagan world, or the dragon — ■ 
Christ is personally present in that conflict and his bride is with him. 
Read its history in Rev. xix. 

EGYPT IN 1882 — ITS PRESENT STATE. 

The inhabitants of any country stamp their peculiar characteristics 
upon its physical aspects. What a sad contrast between the land in its 
era of monuments, and Egypt of to-day! How fallen, since the time that 
Joseph sat on its throne next to Pharaoh. What shadows have cast their 
gloom over the land since that time ! Perpetually under the domination 
of foreigners : the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian, the Roman, the 
Arabian, the Georgian and Tartar Slaves, and the indolent Turk. What 
is its present condition ? 

Of the land itself we have but few notes to append. The hand of 
Jehovah is open still, pouring its fertilizing waters into the many tribu- 
taries of the White and the Blue rivers to be wafted down and deposited 
by the Nile in Lower Egypt. The once fertile valley of the Pharaohs, 
with its 4,000 towns and cities, can yet produce as perfect a flora when 
properly irrigated. It is still the Eden of flowers. An author remarks, 
"As a commercial country, it possesses inestimable facilities. Bees are 
now carefully reared, honey forming an important article of trade. The 
verdure of Upper Egypt generally withers at the end of four or five 
months, and commences earlier than in Lower Egypt. In consequence of 



56 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

this, the Lower Egyptians collect the bees of several villages, in large 
boats; each hive having a mark by which the owner can recognize it. 
The men having charge of them, they commence the gradual ascent of the 
Nile, stopping whenever they come to a region of herbage and flowers. 

At break of day the bees issue from their cells in thousands; and 
busily collect the sweets of the flowers, which are spread in luxuriant pro- 
fusion around them, returning to their hives laden with honey, and 
issuing forth again in quest of more, several times during the course of a 
day. Thus for three or four months, they travel in a land of flowers, and 
are brought back to the place whence they started, with the delicious pro- 
duct of the sweet orange-flowers, which perfume the Said, the roses of 
Faioum, and the jessamines of Arabia." Nature still has its charms in the 
valley of Egypt. 

The defects are in her people; their habits, their religion, their govern- 
ment, and their rulers. The inhabitants are a mixture of the descendant 
of Ham, Shem, and Japheth. During her protracted history, the valley of 
the Nile has been the great magnet of the human race, as the land of 
natural resources. Such a mixture of races, religions and of laws, has 
been productive of endless discord. These strifes have produced constant 
wars, terminating in subjugations and changes of dynasties. These end- 
less wars have exhausted the resources of the country, and debased the 
people. The inhabitants are under the bondage of rapacious rulers. The 
poor of Egypt are under a deplorable servitude. Their officers rob them 
of the fruits of their severe labor. Their food and clothing are reduced to 
a scanty pittance. They are not allowed to make use of corn and rice for 
food, since all that they can raise is demanded by their masters. Indian 
millet, forming a coarse bread, water, raw onions, sometimes a little honey, 
cheese, dates, and sour milk, form their constant, and only food. 

Their clothing is still worse. "A shirt of coarse linen dyed blue, and 
a black cloak, a cloth bonnet, with a long red woolen handkerchief rolled 
around it, form their costume." Such a population, dwelling in miserable 
hovels, moving among the monuments of ancient grandeur, awakens in 
the mind of the stranger a painful interest. This is the land of the 
haughty Pharaohs. These are their proud structures erected to perpetuate 
their names through all ages. This land is the Hebrew house of bondage ; 
the valley claimed by Jehovah as his own, the land of the plagues, visited 
upon a wicked ruler, for the oppression of his own people. The land of 
foreign rulers, continued twenty-two centuries. The world's ancient semi- 
nary — the bridge of three continents. 

The present of Egypt is known and read of all ; but few remarks are, 
therefore, required of us to enable the reader to take in her present posi- 
tion. Let us make a brief summary preparatory to glancing at her future. 

HER UPRISING — ITS RESULTS AND ITS BEARINGS ON THE FUTURE. 

1. Egypt has a population composed of a heterogeneous mass, at- 
tracted to her soil from all nations. They form (to use a chemical term) 
a mechanical mixture. No durable union exists among its elements. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 57 

Each race partial to the members of its own family, forms a community 
by itself. Their interests are selfish and exclusive. Their laws are neither 
understood nor respected by the people at large, and, consequently, not 
readily obeyed. Their officers are tyrannical and exacting. They asso- 
ciate as masters and slaves, no sympathy existing between them. Egypt 
is at this time, not wisely governed, for the reason that it is not suited to 
the national prejudices. A national parliament in Egypt is like parlor 
refinement among savages. It may suit the European population, but 
totally unsuited to the natives. Nations, like individuals, change their 
constitutions, only by the dissolution of the old organic bodies ; such will 
be the fate of Egypt. Her foreign European population can never fuse 
into a nation with Oriental ideas. 

The religious elements of modern Egypt are still more difficult to fuse 
into a homogeneous mass. By what power, human or divine, can there 
be a union between Mohammedanism and Christianity? The Christian 
system allows no compromise, neither does the religion of the Koran. 
The Koran and the Bible can have no fellowship. 

European aggression caused the recent rebellion. That rebellion had 
a national and a religious phase. The British interests have now tri- 
umphed in Egypt. She is there to remain till the time of the future 
northern invasion. 

PRELUDE — CERTAIN QUESTIONS CONSIDERED. 

A brother propounds the following questions : 1. Does the sixth vial 
reach beyond the rapture of the saints ? 2, Is there not a space of time 
between the rapture of the saints, and His (Christ's) public appearing with 
his saints on Mount Zion ? How long before ? 3. Does not this time cover 
the time of the pouring out of the seventh vial? 4. Is it not the work of 
Christ and his army of immortalized holy ones first to clear the enemies 
out of the land, the antitype of David's reign ? 1. Does the sixth vial 
reach beyond the rapture of the saints ? What is the Rapture of the 
aints ? Some of our readers may not understand this term ; and, therefore 
fail to comprehend the act intended. Rapture means a removal by some 
force, from the Latin rapere^ raptum, to carry off by force — Webster. When 
applied to the saints, the act is explained in 1 Thes. iv. 17. " Then we 
which are alive (and) remain shall be caught up (away) together with 
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord." This is called the rapture of the saints. Will the sixth 
vial reach beyond this event? Beyond it, we think; not far, however. 
The day of God's wrath includes seven distinct periods, according to the 
number of vials, each vial having its own period. Five of these periods 
are completed ; the sixth period is now in progress, with many of its most 
noted events still in the future! 1. The great river Euphrates must be 
dried up. 2. The three unclean spirits must gather the kings of the earth, 
and of the whole world to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 
3. A remnant at least, of the twelve tribes, must return to Palestine, and 



58 ♦ THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

occupy that land, and the city Jerusalem. The great conflict of Rev. xvi. 
14, belongs to the sixth period. At some point previous to that battle the 
rapture takes place, since in that conflict Jesus of Nazareth " will open His 
eyes upon the house of Judah." Zech. xii. 4. The gathering at the close 
of the thousand years, is by another agent, Rev. xx. 7. The precise time 
of the coming of the son of man, and the rapture is unknown. The signs 
of that coming as given by the Savior, indicate its vicinity. "Watch 
therefore." 

2. Is there not a space of time between the rapture of the saints and 
his (Christ's) public appearing with His saints on Mount Zion? How long 
is this space? We shall consider these but one question, since one answer 
will cover the two. We cannot fully satisfy the demands of this question, 
since the events are too complicated. 

If, in this question, the Mount of Olives be substituted for Mount Zion, 
we should answer : One thousand years at least, since that standing is at 
the close of the Millenium. In answering the question as it now stands, 
many conflicting interpretations are involved. Where did Christ appear 
with His "saints" on Mount Zion? We have failed to find such a passage. 
John saw a Lamb stand on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty 
(and) four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 
Rev. xiv. 1. We do not question their identity, but we question the office, 
and the time, Christ will reign with His saints on Mount Zion — but we 
question — if that reign is brought to view in Rev. xiv. 1. The coming of 
Christ will be in his royalty — a Nobleman, having received the kingdom ; 
one like the Son of man, who receives a kingdom from the Ancient of days. 
When he comes, he has many crowns. The order of events as enunciated 
in Rev. xix. 7-21 ; and Rev. xx., is the following : 1. The rapture. 2. The 
marriage. 3. The marriage supper. 4. The descent of the Faithful and 
True, to judge and make war. 5. The warrior described : His eyes as a 
flame of fire, and on his head many crowns ; vesture dipped in blood ; his 
name, the Word of God. 6. The armies of heaven, Tthe bride), on white 
horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, follow him. 7. Out of his 
mouth a sharp sword. 8. On his vesture, a name written. King of kings, 
Lord of lords. 9. The overthrow of the hostile army. 10. The binding 
of Satan. 11. The thousand years' reign. 12. Satan loosed. 13. The final 
battle. 14. Close of the official reign of subjugation. The New Heavens 
and New Earth and the joint reign follow. Our space will not allow a full 
answer. Will give it in our next number and explain. Deut. xxxiii. 1-3; 
Hab. iii. 1-6; and Isa. Ixiii, 1-8; also the 24th Psalm, as these are the 
principal texts, which are quoted to establish the view that Christ, with 
His saints first descends upon Mount Sinai, thence takes His line of march 
through the great wilderness to Palestine, invisible to the outer world 
till he appears on Mount Zion ; then fulfilling Psa. xxiv. 7-10. As we are 
now about to treat of the events to transpire in the age of subjugation, 
these points are appropriate, using, however, a due degree of caution, not 
rushing on where angels fear to tread. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 59 

EGYPT IN THE FUTURE. 

The past is history acted out and completed ; the present is history in 
progress of accomplishment, a web in the loom; but the future ! what is 
it ? An unexplored night wilderness, without a sun, or a moon, or a star, 
or any natural object, or any light of nature to guide us ? Egypt's future! 
Who knows it? Who can write it? And, yet, it is written. Who can 
furnish us with a copy, or even fragments of a copy? There sits a lamp; 
with its light, pure white and most intensely brilliant. Hold it up and 
let us peer into that black and rayless wilderness. If it be possible, let us 
follow Egypt in her pathway through its sands, its bogs, its mountains, its 
dark valleys till it emerges into the glories of an endless paradise. 

Our lamp (Bible) : it sends its radiant particles, as swift messengers 
into the wilderness of the future, the terra incognita of revolving cycles. 

Here and there, on Egypt's pathway, is brought to view some noted 
beacon, a) An Altar of witness, h) An Eden garden, like an oasis in a 
Saharan desert, c) A highway, d) A union, e) And family, in the per- 
petual sunshine. These five signals disclose to us all the future of Egypt. 
In one group, they are described as follows : — a) In that day shall there be 
an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egj^pt, and a pillar at the 
border thereof to the Lord, And it shall be for a sign and for a witness 
unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the 
Lord because of the oppressors^ and He shall send them a Savior, and a 
great One, and He shall deliver them, b) In that day shall there be a 
highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, 
and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the 
Assyrians, c) A garden of Eden, an oasis in the desert. " Blessed (be) 
Egypt my people.'*' d) A happy union. In that day shall Israel be the 
third with Egypt, and with Assyria, (even) a blessing in the midst of the 
land, e) The most distant view we have of Egypt as a family group. 
And if the family of Egypt go not up (to keep the feast of tabernacles). 
Read Isa. 19; and Zech. 14., five objects in the group. These five way- 
marks being disclosed by the light of our divine lamp we are required to 
compose, in full, the history of Egypt's future. Are these sufficient data 
for the solution ? In mathematical science, three terms are given, to find 
a fourth. Here five are given, we are required to find a sixth. In the 
future of Egyptian history, five positions, and historical notes are given, 
from which we are to compose her history. The first a pillar ; the second 
is an oasis, an Eden spot in the midst of the wilderness; the third is a 
union of three countries; the fourth is a highway; the fifth is the Egyp- 
tian family in the perpetual sunshine. From these data, we are required 
to understand what the Messiah does with Egypt in His official reign of 
subjugation; and how, or by what means it is done. The what, and the 
how, we propose to investigate. To do this, we shall examine these way- 
marks singly, and in their order, a) The Altar of witness, or Pillar of 
witness. This Altar and Pillar, as translated from the Hebrew of Isaiah, 
by Bishop Lowth, are described as follows: — "In that day, there shall be 



60 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt ; and a pillar by 
the border thereof to Jehovah ; and it shall be for a sign, and for a witness, 
to Jehovah God of hosts in the land of Egypt : that, when they cried unto 
Jehovah because of oppressions, He sent unto them a Savior, and a Vin- 
dicator, and He delivered them." 

In that day — what day ? This expression is repeated five times from 
the 16th verse, to the close of the chapter : it being uttered by the prophet, 
six times. To what period in Egyptian history does the expression refer? 
From the events and the agents we are inclined to interpret that day as 
looking to the future. It may refer to the events of the 18th chapter. If 
so, those events extend into the future. "A pillar of witness." A witness 
is any person, place, or thing, that gives testimony. A pillar is here called 
a witness, because it gives testimony. Cast your eye upon a map of the 
valley of lower Egypt. Fix it upon a spot, on the left bank of the Nile, 
ten miles east of the city of Cairo ; on a rock-base of about 13 acres stands 
a pillar in the midst of pillars. And there it has stood for 40J centuries. 
Though to the eye, there can be found, in the v&Uey 70 such pillars, yet 
the prophet is directed to use the singular, " a pillar." In a valley of 70 
witnesses (in appearance), there is only one witness. There it stands, tes- 
tifying. And there it will stand till its testimony is finished. A witness 
on the stand for 4,000 years. How many centuries it has yet to testify, is 
known only to its divine architect. When Joseph and Mary resided in 
Egypt with the Child Jesus, whose life Herod was seeking, this mighty 
pillar had stood nearly twenty-one centuries. Often did the parents of 
Jesus, (it is reasonable) while examining the wonders of this land of the 
Pharaohs, stand, with their child at the base of the pillar, and point out 
its height, its magnitude, and the immense blocks of stone composing it. 
And there it will stand when the empire of the living stone, as a moun- 
tain fills the whole earth. It shall be a witness through revolving ages ; 
till God's glory covers the world. A witness, capless, in the midst of 
monuments ! 

When the Hungarian chief, L. Kossuth, visited Boston, some years 
since, (1852) standing on a platform at the foot of Bunker Hill monument, 
before a vast concourse of citizens, alluding to that immense granite struc- 
ture, we heard him give utterance to this impressive thought, " Silent Mon- 
itor to tyrants, and to all tyranny." Such is the character of the great 
American revolutionary monument ; erected by the might of human power. 
And when the stranger visits that vicinity, and (in mind) sees its armies 
toiling in deadly strife, and hears the sound of the small arms ; and, above 
all, the cannons roar, he, involuntarily, lifts his eye to that "silent . 
monitor," exclaiming, "a sign," and "a witness." What, then, of the 
God-erected monument of Egypt? It has been standing, the monitor, the 
"silent monitor" witness of 40 centuries of human strifes, and of bloody 
revolutions. It has been the mute companion of all races, the Ethiopian, 
the Mongolian, and the Caucasian. It saw the Hebrew children under 
their cruel task-masters, and heard the sound of the lash, and the cry for 
help ; saw the ten plagues, and the overthrow of the armies of Pharaoh in 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 61 

the Red Sea. It was a witness to Jehovah, God of hosts in the land of 
Egypt ; that, when they cried unto Jehovah because of oppressors, He 
sent unto them a Savior, and a Vindicator, and He delivered them. It 
has witnessed as a " silent monitor " the struggles for supremacy, of all 
religions. What indignities has it suffered to its own person, pierced, 
blasted, and stripped of its outer raiment, like its divine architect it re- 
mained silent. 

It is now only a few years since the seal upon its lips has been broken, 
and it has commenced to utter its testimony. It has declared its own his- 
tory ; when, by whom, and for what purpose erected. It is uttering pre- 
dictions of the future. Let us give attention to its testimony since we are 
all personally interested. 

PRELUDE — EXPLANATIONS. 

A brother remarks : The Scriptures that point out the manner of 
Christ's second coming — please read Deut. xxxiii. 1-3; Hab. iii. 1-6; Isa. 
Ixiii. 1-8 — these have never had a fulfillment as we understand them. If 
they do not relate to His second coming, please show us our mistake, and 
when and where they are to be fulfilled. We believe, and so have we 
written, that Christ and His army of holy ones, after the marriage supper 
of the Lamb, will first strike " terra firma " at Mount Sinai. Thence 
pursue their line of march through the great wilderness to Palestine. 
Question : Will they be (visible) manifest to the outer world before they 
appear on Mount Zion ? We believe that the 24th Ps. has not been ful- 
filled, and will not be till Christ and His bride appear before the gates of 
Jerusalem. The theory is now stated in full. To us, this is now, as it 
always has been, a view somewhat questionable. 

We shall explain the four passages quoted above, as distinctly, and in 
as few words as our abilities will permit; hoping that the explanations 
will be true to the Bible and satisfactory to all. We would rather be 
honest than '' sharp." We shall take them in their order. 

1. "And he (Moses) said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up 
from Seir unto them ; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came 
with ten thousands of saints : from His right hand (went) a fiery law for 
them. Yea, He loved the people ; all His saints (are) in thy hand : and 
they sat down at thy feet ; (every one) shall receive of thy word." Deut. 
xxxiii. 2, 3. These words were uttered by Moses to the children of Israel 
in the plains of Moab by Jordan (near) Jericho. Num. xxxvi. 13. The 
law had been given from Sinai, and they had finished their forty years in 
the wilderness ; had come to a place where the promised land was quite 
near; Moses had seen the land but was not permitted to enter it. Before 
being taken from them he gives them a parting address. In his farewell 
song he makes use of the words as above. 

The Lord came from Sinai. — Is that coming past? Or, is it still 
future? As the truth or falsehood of the theory turns upon this expression, 
it is well to examine it critically. If this coming is past, the view is false, 



62 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and the whole theory tumbles into ruins. We hold that that coming was 
past when Moses uttered the words. 

1. He says, The Lord came from Sinai, not will come, some three or 
four thousand years beyond the time I (Moses) am now speaking. If then 
so far future, why did he not use the future tense ? He uses a past tense 
to express a past act. The Lord came, not will come. 

Moses, in narrating the wanderings of the Israelites, commences at 
their encampment at the foot of Mount Sinai, and notes remarkable events 
in God's dealings with them during the 40 years in the wilderness. The 
order of events is followed, Sinai, Seir and Mount Paran. '' Came from " 
God was their guide. Who (God) went in the way before you, to search 
out a place to pitch your tents (in), in fire by night, to show you by what 
way you should go, and in a cloud by day. Deut. i. 33 ; (see Ex. xii. 21, 
22 ; Num. ix. 15, 22 ; xiv. 14), Jehovah led them toward Kadesh-barnea, 
by the foot of Mount Seir. There, and about Mount Seir the Israelites 
continued many days, not less than about 37^ years; "And the space in 
which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook 
Zered, (which flows west into the Dead Sea) (was) thirty and eight years." 
Deut. ii. 14. Hence the propriety of the expressions. . "Rose up from Seir 
unto them." Deut. xxxiii. 2; and "ye have compassed this mountain 
long enough ; turn you northward." Deut. ii. 3, 7, 14. " He shined forth 
from Mount Paran." The exact position of this mountain cannot be ascer- 
tained. It was near to Mount Seir, and was one of those mountains on 
which Jehovah often shone forth in His brightness, during His long sojourn 
with His people in the wilderness, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by 
night. Ten thousands of saints." Holy ones. Such is its proper mean- 
ing: for Moses narrates but one coming (on Mount Sinai). He then con- 
tinues with them as their king through the wilderness. God did not 
descend alone. The chariots of God (are) twenty thousand, (even) thou- 
sands of angels : the Lord (Jehovah) (is) among them, (as in) Sinai, in 
the holy (place). Psa. Ixviii. 17; when the law was given. Who (Jews) 
have received the law (of Moses) by the disposition of angels." Acts vii. 
53 ; "And it (the law) was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator 
(Moses)." Gal. iii. 19. "If the word (law of Moses spoken by angels was 
steadfast." Heb. ii. 2. Many or thousands uttered the words of the law 
in concert (perhaps), amid thunderings and lightnings. 

From his right hand (went) a fiery law for them." (Israel). "Yea, 
he loved the people" (Israel) or he would not hajve been to the trouble of 
providing for them a fiery law, and of being their sleepless guide through 
the wilderness. Verses 3 and 4 are parenthetical, and somewhat ambigu- 
ous in their use of pronouns. To whom do the pronouns "he," "his," 
and "thy" refer? God, or Moses or both? Vs. 4 and 5 relate to Moses as 
a mediator or God's vice-regent. May not vs. 3 refer to Moses? Neither 
explanation will effect the translation of vs. 2. They are all expressed in 
the past tense, except one. "(Every one) shall receive of thy words." 
This, with vss. 10, 12, 17, 19, 22, 25, 27 will be sufficient to convince us 
that Moses knew what tense to use in describing future actions and events. 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 63 

2. Habakkuk, in his prayer, is said to speak of Christ's second coming : 
"God came from Teman (the south), and (even) the Holy One, from 
Mount Paran." Hab. iii. 3. This coming is past, the past tense being 
used ; and it was the Father's advent as seen by Moses in the wilderness. 
"And" means "even;" God and the Holy One being one person. Hab- 
akkuk describes a past manifestation of the Elohim. His song was 
composed and sung in the congregation on the eve of the Babylonian 
captivity, when Jeremiah's 70 years' bondage were about to commence. 
Habakkuk is, in view of the impending danger, carried back to God's 
judgments on Egypt, His advent on Sinai, and his protection through the 
wilderness. If God then delivered his people from that actual bondage, 
why not from this impending captivity? So thought the prophet. Isa. 
Ixiii. 1-8; Ps. xxiv. (relating to other events) will come in No. 18. 

EGYPT IN THE FUTURE. 

It is our province, by the aid of the Bible, to trace Egypt through her 
future changes and to examine the agencies by which they are made, and 
the manner of their accomplishment. Five way-marks are given to aid 
us in our investigations. One, the pillar of witness, we have briefly 
noticed. A volume would be required to develop, fully, the purposes of 
its construction. A single additional question, however, must suffice for 
the present: Why was this pillar, sign, and witness located in Egypt? 
God does not act without reason. He had an object in the erection of 
that pyramid in the land of the Pharaohs, rather than in Palestine or in 
Assyria. The relative geographical location of the valley of the Lower 
Nile affords a reason quite sufficient. 1. No land has had such an event- 
ful experience. 2. It was at that time (B. C. 2170) in the front rank of 
knowledge and resources. 3. It is on the grand highway of western civil- 
ization and commerce. 4. Of the Eastern world, Egypt is the most con- 
venient land for scientific research; and consequently God located this 
sealed monument in that location where the seal would be the sooner 
broken. Had it been erected in any part of Asia, it would not now be 
delivering its testimony. Many other reasons might be suggested but 
these we deem sufficient. 

Second Way-Mark. — The oasis, or Eden garden in the wilderness of 
Egypt's future. The prophet's description is the following, " Blessed (be) 
Egypt my people." Isa. xix. 25. "Which in time past (were) not my 
people, but (are) now the people of God : which had not obtained mercy, 
but now have obtained mercy." 1 Pet. ii. 10. "And he saith also in Osce. 
I will call them my people which were not my people ; and her beloved 
which was not beloved." Rom. ix. 25. "And I will sow her unto me in 
the earth ; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; 
and I will say to (them which were) not my people, thou (art) my people; 
and they shall say (Thou art) my God." Hos. ii. 23. "Blessed Egypt!" 
What a volume of associated thought is suggested by these two words: 
how inappropriate to Egypt under the Turk. What expression would 



64 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

now suit Egypt ? Turko-Mohammedan cursed people ! What terrible 
revolutions in that land before it can be truly said, "Blessed Egypt!" 
What physical, what political and what religious changes. The Libyan 
desert must retreat before the march of agricultural improvements. The 
indolent, God forsaken Asiatic must give place to a more efficient race ; 
one new and enterprising ; one whose political aspirations will carry it 
onward toward Millennial justice and purity. Its religious creed must be 
totally changed. Mohammedan ideas have never renovated the morals of 
any country. The moral standard of the Koran is low ; and in its leading 
thought it is licentious. 

There have been two remarkable prophets, who have established each 
a religious system : viz., the Arabian Mohammed, the author of Moham- 
medanism ; and Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah of the Christian. The 
lives of each, with their religious systems have been written; and, for 
many centuries, have been in circulation. One system is found in the 
Koran ; the other in the Bible. The leading thought of the one system 
is, Hate your enemies; of the other. Love your enemies. Compare the 
written lives of each of these noted prophets. Who cannot discern a 
remarkable contrast in the lives of these prophets, in their disciples, and 
in the nations that have adopted their religions? The crescent has de- 
graded Egypt. Such is the legitimate tendency of Mohammedanism. 
Though in its first centuries of domination it was a patron of science and 
literature, it lacked moral principle. It never developed a healthy moral 
constitution. The reason is obvious, its parents were without any. As 
water cannot rise above its fountain, neither can Mohammedan morals 
rise above their fountain contained in the Koran. Before Egypt can 
reach that beautiful, luxuriant and blessed garden in the wilderness, it 
will be renovated morally, socially, religiously and nationally. These 
changes will be accomplished fully, under Messiah's reign of subjugation. 
The incipient changes are in progress, as will soon be apparent in her on- 
ward movements. 

Third Way-mark. — Egypt's Union with Israel and Assyria. — That 
union is described as follows. In that day shall Israel be the third with 
Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land." Isa. 
xix. 24. "In that day." What day? In the day of Messiah's regal, 
official, personal administration ; in that day in which Christ " puts down 
all rule, and all authority and power." 1 Cor. xv. 24. In that day when 
the stone, smiting the image, and reducing it to dust, becomes a mountain 
and fills the whole earth. We may affirm, with much assurance, that the 
past history of thope three countries gives us no record of such a union ; 
and, consequently, its fulfilment is in the future. 

It is true that those three countries are now professing the same religion 
(that of the Koran) ; but is there any union between those countries? It is 
here, union under Jehovah : " In that day, the Lord shall be known to 
Egypt and the Egyptians shall know the Lord." " And the Egyptians 
shall serve (the Lord) with the Assyrians." These distinctive characteris- 
tics are sufficient to fix the union in the future. The object of this triple 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 65 

union is not fully known. Why, under the reign of Messiah, (whose reign 
will be over all nations) two countries, Egypt and Assyria, should be united 
with Israel, may not be so clear. Under the present circumstances we may 
be allowed to conjecture. The geographical positions of Egypt and Assyria, 
relative to the land of Israel, we present as a reason. Relative to Palestine, 
Assyria is the gate of northern, middle, and eastern Asia ; for, in visiting 
the holy land, the inhabitants of those powerful kingdoms, states and 
empires would pass through Assyria, (all countries on the eastern side of 
the Euphrates and Tigris being included under that name). That country 
would command Asia. For the same reasons Egypt may be called the gate 
of Africa, and the West; Egypt, even now, by reason of the Suez canal, is 
the toll gate of the Great West. Their union with the land of Israel under 
the Messiah, would give ample room for the central kingdom or capital 
empire of the world. With such physical changes as are named by the 
prophets, this triple territory would sustain an immense population. 

Fourth Way-mark. — This, with the fifth will finish our Egyptian 
Phase of the Eastern Question. But, before we enter upon their investiga- 
tion, two passages, quoted by a brother, demand some notice, viz., Isa. Ixiii. 
1-8; and Psa. xxiv. 

In Isa. Ixiii. 1-6, Bishop Lowth's translation is as follows: "Who is 
this, that Cometh from Edom ? With garments deeply dyed from Botsra? 
This, that is magnificent in His apparel ; marching on in the greatness of 
His strength? Messiah. I who publish righteousness, and am mighty to 
save. "Cho. Wherefore is Thine apparel red? And Thy garments, as one 
of them that treadeth the wine-vat? Mess. I have trodden the vat alone; 
and of the peoples there was not a man with me. And I trod them in 
mine anger ; and I trampled them in mine indignation. And their life- 
blood was sprinkled upon my garments; and I have stained all mine 
apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart; and the year of my 
redeemed was come. And I looked, and there was no one to help ; and I 
was astonished, that there was no one to uphold : Therefore mine own 
arm wrought salvation for me, and mine indignation sustained me. And 
I trod down the peoples in mine anger ; and I crushed them in my indig- 
nation ; and I spilled their life-blood on the ground." These events, in 
our view, have no connection, whatever, with Deut. xxxiii. 2-6; and.Hab. 
iii. 2-6. The only question to be answered, is. Are they accomplished? 
Or, are they still future ? We are inclined to the opinion, that their full 
accomplishment is in the future. It by no means follows that this will 
take place in Messiah's march from Sinai to Jerusalem. For He declares 
that in this terrible slaughter He is alone : not a man with him. Here we 
have the Son, in the other, the Father. This overthrow of Edom, which 
is finished during the age of subjugation, says nothing about Christ's 
advent to the earth, only his march alone through Edom. Our brother 
says : "Is it not the work of Christ and His army of immortalized holy 
ones, first to clear the enemies out of the land, the antitype of David's 
reign?" David's army was composed of warriors who did the most of the 
fighting. Christ is the warrior and does all the fighting. Christ and His 
5 



66 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

army (His bride) have not the same uniform : neither is there but one 
sword. The bride does not fight : she is in her bridal suit, " Fine linen, 
clean and white." " The armies in heaven followed Him (Christ) upon 
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." Rev. xix. 14. No 
fighting in such a uniform. Christ subjugates His enemies without the aid 
of human arms. Psa. xxiv. 7-10, " Lift up your heads, ye gates; and be 
ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who 
(is) this King of glory ? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in 
battle. Lift up your heads, ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting 
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ? 
The Lord of hosts. He (is) the King of glory." We cannot fit this Psalm 
to the Christ's appearing at His second advent "before the gates of Jerusa- 
lem," since it is wanting in Scripture proof. Where is the passage that 
announces such a knocking demand at the gates of any future Jerusalem ? 
Christ said^ " I am a King." John xviii. 37. For this confession, Pilate 
had it written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and put on the cross, " Jesus 
of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." And, when the chief priests said to 
Pilate, " Write not. The King of the Jews ; but that He said, I am King of 
the Jews." Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. John 
xix. 21, 22. Christ was then King de jure, (by right), by virtue of His 
being the Son of God, which was declared by His resurrection from the 
dead. Rom. i. 4. He is King de facto, (in fact), when He receives the 
Kingdom, after having finished His priestly office. Dan. vii. 13, 14. The 
Nobleman receives his Kingdom and returns. When the Father said, "Sit 
Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool " (Psa. ex. 
1), it was an acknowledgement of His Sonship. This took place at Christ's 
ascension, with a multitude of captives. Immediately announced, " Yet 
have I set my King (by right) upon my holy hill of Zion." Psa. ii. 6. I 
accept Him as my Son and legal heir to David's throne. The following, I 
think, is appropriate : " We must now form to ourselves an idea of the 
Lord of Glory, after His resurrection from the dead, making His entry into 
the eternal temple in heaven, as of old, by the symbol of His presence. He 
took possession of that figurative and temporary structure which once 
stood upon the hill of Zion. We are to conceive Him gradually rising from 
Mount Olivet, taking the clouds (of witnesses) for His chariot, and ascend- 
ing up on high ; while some of His angels (like the Levites in this pro- 
cession), demand that those everlasting gates and doors, hitherto shut and 
barred against the race of Adam, should be thrown open for his admission. 
"Lift up your heads, ye gates!" to heaven and earth be it proclaimed 
aloud, by men and angels — that God our Savior, — ' He is the Lord of Hosts ; 
He is the King of Glory.' Amen Hallelujah." — Bishop Home. 

EGYPT IN THE FUTURE — FOURTH WAY-MARK — THE HIGHWAY. 

"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and 
the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and 
the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians." Isa. xix. 23. "And a 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 67 

highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holi- 
ness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it (shall be) for those : the 
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err (therein). No lion shall be 
there, nor (any) ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found 
there; but the redeemed shall walk (there) : and the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their 
heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away." Isa. xxx. 8-10. We have quoted both passages that they 
may be compared the more readily. The former highway belongs, more 
particularly to Egypt and Assyria, necessarily passing through the land of 
Israel : the latter belonging to the land of Israel ; but not necessarily con- 
fined to that country. We shall first examine the highway out of Egypt 
into Assyria. Is it literal or figurative? We do not question its literal 
interpretation. The whole chapter seems to have that meaning. The 
names of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, are literal countries : so understood 
by all expositors. The people are literal also. Their movements are 
literal, " shall come." Egyptian and Assyrian are literal terms. No attri- 
bute to these lands and their inhabitants, that they do not naturally pos- 
sess. In such cases terms must have their literal interpretation. The 
same is true of this highway. The servitude is literal. Of the 33 words 
used to express this highway, its attributes and uses, 10 are names, and 23 
are only connectives, being adjectives and prepositions; except 6, which 
express being, or action. All express persons, places, or things, which 
their attributes, relationships, their being or natural actions. No figure in 
the verse. As literal, as our Railroads, which run from state to state ; 
throwing around them and through them an iron net-work. Who, in 
describing these numerous highways of travel, would risk his reputation 
for sanity, by calling them figurative or spiritual highways? 

This highway seems to be the chief of a system of roads leading 
through those countries which are on the direct line of future communica- 
tion between the great West, and the Eastern empires, or " Kings of the 
East." Egypt being the Western avenue of the world, might represent 
the Western commercial, civil and religious world, while Assyria holds the 
same relationship to the eastern world. Egypt appears to be united to 
Assyria in their worship of Jehovah; each going up, from year to year, to 
Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts. It shows a great ad- 
vance in Christian civilization. This great national highway being shown 
to be literal, let us examine the one (or two) in Isa. xxxv. 8, 9, 10. Bishop 
Lowth's translation is the following: — "And a highway shall be there; 
and it shall be called the way of holiness: no unclean person shall pass 
through it : but He Himself (Jehovah Christ) shall be with them, walking 
in the way, and foolish shall not err therein. No lion shall be there ; but 
the redeemed shall walk in it. Yea the ransomed of Jehovah shall return: 
they shall come to Zion with triumph; and perpetual gladness shall crown 
their heads. Joy and gladness shall they obtain ; and sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away." 

The prediction more particularly belongs to the land of Israel under 



68 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the reign of Messiah. To that phase of the Eastern question will belong 
our principal exposition : with this remark, however, that this highway is 
equally literal with the one already explained, only, that this passage 
represents a more advanced period of the reign of subjugation. The 
physical and moral aspects of the countr}'-, and the agencies of the changes, 
are clearly set forth. Springs of water, the physical agent, and Messiah 
Jehovah, in His personal presence, the great moral renovator. 

FIFTH WAY-MARK — THE FAMILY OF EGYPT UNDER THE JOINT REIGN. 

"And if the family of Egypt does not go forth, and come up, so will 
there not be rain upon them, but there shall be upon them the plague, 
wherewith the Lord will plague all the nations, who will not go forth to 
celebrate the feast of tabernacles. This will be the sin of Egypt, and the 
sin of all the nations who will not go up to celebrate the feast of taber- 
nacles." Zech. xiv. 18, 19. This is the most distant view of Egypt, in 
our prophetic telescope. Let us take our final look at that most interesting 
country and now happy people; she still bears her name; but is very 
significantly called " the Family." 

Her nationality, even subordinate, as it existed during the reign of 
subjugation, has run out its last sands ; and she takes her place as a family 
group of the redeemed, in an earth full of the glory of Jehovah. The 
terms and threatenings applied to Egypt in the quotation we have given 
from Zech. xiv. 18, 19; may cast a doubt as to the correctness of our in- 
terpretation. We will attempt to remove the difiiculties in the way of our 
application. It is said that the expression, "If the family of Egypt go 
not forth," implies that they will at times, refuse to go forth, and are, 
therefore, in their imperfect and disobedient state. This objection seems 
to have some weight. Let us examine the language of the text more 
critically. The idea is more clearly expressed by substituting the follow- 
ing, " Should the family of Egypt, Assyria, or any other family of that 
Eden earth refuse to honor the Great King by refusing to go up to Jerusa- 
lem to keep this commemorative feast. God would thus punish sin (only 
sin) of contempt. Not that there will be that one sin, the contempt of 
court, but, should there be, then such punishments would follow. It is to 
be understood as Isa. Ixv. 20. In that new earth there will be no tears ; 
and, consequently, no deaths; and yet it speaks of infants one hundred 
years old, dying; and old men under a curse. This, to harmonize with 
itself, would read as follows, Should there be any births or deaths, the in- 
fant would be called an infant should he die at the age of one hundred 
years, and should there be a sinner one hundred years old he should be 
accursed. If one of the angels (even Gabriel or Michael) should refuse to 
carry any message for Jehovah, he would be cast down from his lofty posi- 
tion. Obedience is a primary law of Christ's kingdom. Should any 
family of the earth, however favored, such as Egypt will be at that time, 
it would not escape punishment. The perpetuity of Messiah's throne; 



EGYPTIAN PHASE. 69 

yea, its very existence would depend upon the strict and willing obedience 
of every family. 

In all these statements, it is not stated that any will refuse. Our law- 
givers affix penalties to the violations of law, when there are no violations, 
So in the restitution. In that holy state there can be no transgressions, 
since all are free to act, but are without any disposition or motive to vio- 
late the laws of that kingdom of love, peace and righteousness. 

Let us, for the present, bid adieu to the land and people of the valley 
of Egypt. The advancement of its European civilization and foreign 
occupation will be noticed more at large under another Phase. 

Some are ready to ask, as one of old, how can these things be ? How 
can the world be restored to its Eden state and be filled with a race of pure, 
immortal beings ? It would be a sufficient answer to say. He that called 
this earth into being and made a Paradise of it, has the power to restore 
it to that Eden state. And as He has authorized the prophets to declare 
that" to be His will: who can for a moment, have any doubt of its accom- 
plishment? The "Restitution!" What a world of associated thought 
clusters around that blessed word. He that had power to call Lazarus out 
of his tomb, and to still the tempest and quiet the sea, can restore all 
things. We do not stagger at His promise. The world is waste, and 
somewhat dilapitated, but when Christ shall make it His personal abode, 
it will be fitted up a beautiful mansion for Himself and His people. 



BRITISH PHASE. 



PROPRIETY OF THE NAME. — ELEMENTS, GROWTH, AND MISSION OP GREAT 
BRITAIN STATED AND OUTLINED. 

Prelude. — Two classes of men are highly interested in our great 
national movements in the Eastern Hemisphere : a) The worldly poli- 
tician, who sees nothing but the present age and human aggrandizement. 
6) The prophetic student, who reads all their acts, revolutions, and devel- 
opments by the light of revelation. The one knows no agent but man ; 
no success nor any advancement that is not the product of his brain, and 
the work of his muscle ; the other sees nothing but the plans and move- 
ments of the Almighty. Hence we have two widely distinct classes of 
national expositors. Jehovah is writing the doom of empires upon the 
palace walls of their monarchs ; but their wise men read nothing in these 
characters, but ages of peace and prosperity. Hence Messiah's approach 
gives them no warning. Read the secular journals. What could be 
learned by the masses out of. those periodicals relative to Christ's return 
and His kingdom ? The alarm of Christ's approach may make a ripple 
upon the deep of human occupations, but, as the pebble upon the lake, 
the wave it creates soon returns to its quite waters. 

In our investigations we follow the nations in the light that God 
revealed to His prophets. 

British Phase. — We have this great truth distinctly shown in all 
the Eastern national movements, that each nation puts a new phase upon 
the so-called Eastern question. This is particularly true of Great Britain 
whose origin, growth, and future mission, and its final destiny we purpose 
to show. Its name. — We have selected the name British, because it is 
the name of the empire, it being more comprehensive than English, or 
Anglo Saxon. It will allow us to include her colonies : — 

The name British, Briton, is supposed to be Celtic from brit, painted, 
as the ancient Britons painted their bodies blue. The term Britannicse 
Insulse, was applied by Julius Caesar to the British Isles ; Albion (England 
and Scotland), and Hibernia (lerne), Ireland. Aristotle B. C. 384-322, 
knew and describes Albion and lerne. Ptolemy in the second century 
first called lerne Little Britain, and Albion Great Britain. Such appear 
to be the origin of the present name of the British empire. We shall 
now hasten to consider the empire itself; building our remarks upon the 
basis of this cardinal truth, that God is the Originator, the Governor, and 
the Disposer of all nationalities "ruling," as Nebuchadnezzar, after the 
(70) 



BRITISH PHASE. 71 

sad experience of Jehovah's supreme power expresses himself, "All the in- 
habitants of the earth (are) reputed as nothing : and he doeth according 
to His will in the army of heaven, and (among) the inhabitants of the 
earth : and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? 
Dan. iv. 35. 

1. We shall outline the British empire as it now exists. 2. We 
shall investigate its origin, and the race that has given it vitality. 3. We 
shall trace that people in their migrations and national growth. 4. The 
destiny or mission of the British empire will then be considered. 

1. British Empire as it now Exists. — A small island (90,000 
sq. m.) containing an area, less than one-third that of Texas, has given 
birth to an infant which, through a series of years, has grown up into a 
being of such gigantic proportions, that, with its arm outstretched, it has 
drawn into its bosom the great globe itself. Such an efifect must flow 
from an adequate cause. That little Island, with a fraction under 90,000 
square miles (89,600 sq. m.) has now under its imperial domination eight 
million square miles, distributed over parts of every continent, and the 
ocean islands. An island that can give birth to such an empire, is worthy 
of the highest admiration. Let us walk about the island, and see wherein 
lies the secret of its power. Let us follow its coast outline, viewing its 
harbor system ; pass over its mountain ranges, through its valleys, tracing 
its lakes and rivers, noting their characteristics, view the soil as adapted 
to vegetable products. Having examined its surface as to its natural 
features, let us descend below its surface and examine its geological struc- 
ture, and the variety of its mineral wealth. Having outlined its physical 
formation and its natural resources, let us notice its monuments of human 
industry. 

Let the reader place before him an accurate map of the Island of 
Great Britain while he reads and investigates the following sketch. 
Great Britain (the island) in pre-historic times was a part of the Euro- 
pean, or German continent : now disjoined by a water passage (Str. of 
Dover), about 21 miles wide. It lies between 49 deg. 57 min. 30 sec. and 
58 deg. 40 min. 24 sec. north lat. and 1 deg. 46 min. east long, and 6 deg. 
13 min. west. The waters surrounding it are, the North sea, English 
channel, St. George's channel, Irish sea, and the Atlantic ocean. Following 
its coast line from the Strait of Dover toward the east and north we pass 
the following physical objects of note-worthy interest. The coast line 
from Dover to the northern extremity of Scotland is very tortuous and 
exhibits an infinite variety of natural scenery. Its water outlets, its bold 
head lands, chalk cliffs, its low sandy shores, its numerous harbors, its 
inlets and firths, present to the eye of the coaster a perpetual kaleidoscope. 
He never tires of the endless changes in the objects of his delighted vision. 
The first noted river opening is the Thames, the natural drainage of 6,000 
sq. m. 2. The Wash, the common receptacle of five rivers. 3. The 
Humber, the receptacle of the Yorkshire Ouse, the Trent, and some other 
small streams. 4. The Tyne. 5. Firth of Forth. 6. The Tay. 7. The 
Dee. 8. The Don. 9. Moray Firth. 10. The Dornoch Firth. Passing 



72 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

along the west coast line, we find the Clyde in Scotland, and the Severn, 
the great river of S. W. England. On the south and east, the river system 
numbers about four times as many, as on the west and north. The moun- 
tains and hills lie principally to the north and west. The south-eastern 
division of the island seems to be the portion designed for agriculture. 
The mountains and uplands gather the waters from the clouds. From 
these fountains flow the streams which irrigate the low-lands. The 
British Island (containing England and Scotland) has one of the most 
perfect systems of drainage and irrigation to be found on the globe. This 
arises from its varied and peculiar surface configuration. When Jehovah 
constructs any continent or island, and furnishes it as a habitation for any 
part of the human family, he shapes and furnishes it for the special use of 
some one particular family. He certainly has the knowledge and the 
power to adapt the means to the end. 

It is safe to say that Great Britain was once a European Peninsula. 
But, in the revolution of ages, it was designed to be a retreat for one 
special people ; a quiet home. For that purpose, he cut it off from the 
main land, and made it into a beautiful island home, and furnished it 
with every necessary product and adapted it in all its attributes, to the 
requirements of the intended occupants. The shape, lay, and the resources 
of the island sustain these remarks. It has been peopled by Europeans ; 
and with those nations occupying north western Europe, such as France, 
Germany, and Denmark. It has had for centuries a large portion of its 
intercourse. Is there anything in the structure and in the face of the land 
to prove that to have been its Maker's original purpose ? 

With the admission that the course of the rivers and of all flowing 
waters of any country indicate its general slope, place before you a map of 
Europe with its surrounding islands. Trace the rivers as they flow from 
their mountain sources to the North Sea and to the English Channel; bear- 
ing in mind that harbors are generally made by, or are associated with the 
river systems. The French and German rivers flow towards the mouths 
of the principal British rivers, demonstrating the fact that those countries 
face each other. Their harbors follow the same law of intercourse. Why 
not admit that those countries were thus purposely constructed? The 
principal rivers and harbors of Ireland follow the same law. The Clyde in 
Scotland and the streams of North Ireland follow the law of commercial 
intercourse. 

Ireland has one large river that flows to the (Southwest) Shannon : 
The Island of Great Britain has one large river; also, flowing in the same 
direction — (the Severn). 

By what agency has Great Britain been made to look Europe in the 
face? Its geological structure will reveal the agency. The earth's crust 
(some 50 miles thick) is composed, principally, of layers deposited in 
minute particles from water where they were held in solution. The law 
of gravity would require the strata thus formed, originally to be horizontal. 
What would have been the result had they remained in their original, un- 
broken, horizontal position ? Would the waters have been gathered into 



BRITISH PHASE. 73 

seas and oceans ? Would there have been any dry land or any rivers ? 
The sinking and upheaving of the earth's strata, were, therefore, about the 
first of the progressive changes of the earth to render it a living home 
for air-breathing animals. Breaking and tilting the strata, so as to form 
various angles with the horizon, was God's method of gathering the waters 
into "seas," and of draining the "earth." 

For a more definite illustration of the Divine method of draining and 
iij-rigation let us examine the geology of the island of Great Britain : com- 
mencing with its first geological period (Laurentian system the most 
ancient rock exposed), as it was originally deposited. It was then the 
bottom of the seas which are now its boundaries. Such was its position 
during the ages of deposits of Cambrian, Silurian, and the lower strata of 
the Carboniferous naeasures. (During the coal measure deposits it was, 
in part, alternately above and below the ocean surface. Through the 
periods of the Permian, Triassic, Lias, Oolite, Wealden (fresh water deposit) 
Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene measures, while this part of the 
earth's crust (89,600 sq. m. was being prepared for air-breathing animals, 
and especially for man their highest type, it was covered with the ocean 
waters. 

Being furnished with all of its mineral resources, it is detached and 
elevated permanently above the sea: tilted up from the n. w. so as to dip 
toward the s. e. : facing Germany, from which country it was principally 
to be peopled. A vertical plain passing from the under surface of the 
cyrstalline gneiss of the Laurentian system to the east, south eastern coast 
on the North Sea, upward to the coast, will show a section in which may 
be seen a sample of all the geological strata. " British rocks form the 
tpyical series of the earth's strata." No country of equal size, can be said 
to equal Great Britain in mineral resources. Passing from the Hebrides 
n. w. of Scotland, along the western shores of Sutherland and Ross where 
the Laurentian rocks appear, we step on to the Cambrian rock platform in 
Cumberland and travel on that series through Anglesey, and North Wales ; 
these rocks are sandstones, gritstones, and slates. From this platform we 
step on to the higher platform, called the Silurian : one of great extent. 
It is developed mostly in South Wales, and is composed of immense layers 
of shales, slates, and sandstones, with limestones. The Silurian strata 
spread over a large portion of Scotland, except the large trough of more 
recent deposits in Central Scotland. This formation contains the lead 
mines of Wanlockhead and Leadhills. Leaving this platform, we reach, 
in our upward progress, the Carboniferous platform, which contains the 
coal strata and principal iron ores. They extend from Bristol channel to 
Cheviot hills, including 15 detached coal fields. Its sandstones and lime- 
stones are of great value. We next step on to the Permian platform of 
magnesian limestone, and sandstone, both valuable for building purposes. 
Going south eastward we rise on to the Jurassic, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, 
Cretaceous, Eocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene deposits on the coasts of 
Norfolk, Sufiblk, Essex, and Kent. Such a geological structure has the 
Almighty seen fit for some wise purpose, to give to this little island. He 



74 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

has laid its foundation deep. " The earth (is) the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof: and the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded 
it upon (under) the seas and established it upon the floods. Psalm xxiv. 

WHAT HAS CHRISTIANITY TO DO WITH NATURAL SCIENCE AND PROFANE 

HISTORY ? 

Prelude. — It is often asked by persons of some devotional ideas, 
"What has Christianity to do with the natural sciences? Especially with 
that " Infidel science," called geology. Would it not be more consistent 
with a high Christian profession to make use of the Bible alone? Preju- 
dice, in its own estimation, is a very sharp critic, and exceedingly wise; 
in many instances, however, its censures are the result of ignorance. 

What is geology? It is a near relative of geography. The one has 
his office and field of labor on the surface of the earth : the other beneath 
its surface. Geology examines the earth's rock structure, and its general 
configuration and build-up, while geography confines itself to the sur- 
face of things. Both sciences are angels of light, whose mission requires 
them to declare the power, goodness and wisdom of the Creator. Why 
fear such beneficent angels? The Bible commences with the science of 
geology by enunciating its fundamental truth, that the earth's materials 
were created by God (Elohim). It then describes God's work in shaping 
it, and fitting it up for the abode of living organisms ; gives the history of 
their creation and of man as the earth's residing governor. The facts of 
geology are often noticed in the Scriptures. (See Psa. xxiv. and Job.) It 
is urged that infidels make geology contradict Moses. True, but do they 
not make the Bible contradict itself? What Bible truth has not been more 
abused than the principles of natural science? No science should be 
answerable for its abuse, either through ignorance or design. It is ob- 
jected that geology and Moses do not agree as to the earth's age. This, we 
deny. Moses does not give the age of the geological materials out of which 
the earth was constructed ; only that, in the beginning they were created, 
after which they were fashioned into a globe called " Earth." 

How long between the creation and construction, is not stated. The 
objector will please tell us, from the record of Moses, what space of time 
elapsed between the act of creation — Gen. i. 1. — and the building of the 
earth out of those materials — Gen. i. 2 — to end. All admit that the crea- 
tion of the materials must be first. The time, how long, not being stated, 
does not, therefore, contradict geological time. God is as truly the author 
of geological science (true principles) as He is the author of the Bible. 
God, by human agents and by His Son, spoke His revelations, which, by 
man, have been collected into a single volume called the Bible; but the 
book of nature, containing the record of His eternal power and Godhead, 
he has issued from His own printing establishment. Man, as a type-setter 
and publisher is liable to err; God, never! The one volume is suited to 
"Babes and sucklings;" the other to the Christian in his manhood. 
Many Christians have singular prejudices relative to the utility of secular 



BRITISH PHASE. 75 

history in explaining the fulfilment of prophecy. They hold that the 
Bible alone must be its interpreter. This view is correct only in part. It 
will not hold good in regard to those prophecies, whose accomplishment 
belongs to a period which extends beyond Bible history ; such as a part of 
the metalic image, the fourth beast of Daniel, the standing up of Michael, 
the return of Israel and Judah, the signs of the advent, and the Apoca- 
lypse, and Christ's predictions of His return, and Paul's man of sin. The 
Bible cannot contain any historical record of their fulfilment, since no 
part of the Sacred Scripture has a later date than about A. D. 96. 

Christ evidently enjoined upon His disciples the study of history. 
For He says, '' When ye see these things then know." How could they 
discern without close investigation ? And what could they search but the 
history of passing events. To show when, where, and how prophecies 
have been fulfilled requires close and protracted investigation of national 
history. Any one has knowledge enough to say that prophecy is to be ac- 
complished. The one is a theory of labor ; the other is the theory of 
indolence. To decide correctly, however, as to the prophecies yet unful- 
filled, requires a knowledge of all past history of those nations, in any 
manner associated with the people of God. A history which contains a 
pure and perfect record of facts as they have transpired during the Chris- 
tian era, are as authoritative as the historic books of the Bible : for each 
would be a perfect record of facts as they took place. In the Old Testa- 
ment we have many books of history, such as Genesis, Joshua, Judges, 
Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chron., 2 Chron., the Acts 
of the Apostles, and the four gospels. These are called inspired records, or 
records free from error in their statements of facts. Books of history, 
composed of the records of events that have transpired since A. D. 96, so far 
as they agree with the chain of facts, would be equally as authoritative as 
the list from the Bible. What matters the private opinion of the his- 
torian if his record is true ? Parts of the Bible were uttered by wicked 
men, and their doctrines are false, yet the record is true. Job's friends be- 
long to that class. 

Gibbon and Hume are called infidels; yet their records of facts as they 
transpired are truthful. It is no flight of fancy to say that God can make 
an infidel testify to the truth. In the days of Christ's first advent the 
demons gave true testimony, "Jesus, we know Thee, the holy One of 
God." And if a demon could speak the truth, why not an infidel? 
Authentic histories are sufficiently accurate to demonstrate the fulfilment 
of prophecy. 

Island of Great Britain. — We shall examine its mineral resources. 
We have seen that the island is furnished with all the geological strata, so 
that it is furnished with all the mineral wealth of each formation. The 
mineral wealth : 1) In this island are found salt in 1880.2i million tons, 
valued at $6,000,000; 2) Iron pyrites 50,000 tons, value $5o5,000; 3) Zinc, 
25,000 tons of ore, producing of metalic zinc, 7,000 tons, valued at $504,000; 
4) Lead and silver from the same ores of the palseozoic rocks, 82,000 tons 



76 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of ore, containing 61,500 tons of metal, worth 6J million dollars ; from 
which were obtained 521,300 ounces of silver, valued at $521,000; 5) Cop- 
per from Cornwall and Devon, 105 mines, producing 85,000 tons of ore, 
yielding 5,100 tons of metalic copper, valued at $1,500,000; 6) 9,000 tons of 
tin, value $3,000,000. The tin mines of Cornwall, Devon, and Scilly Isles 
have been worked 2,500 years, and have been the richest tin deposits in 
the world. Tin was taken from these mines for Solomon's temple; 7) Iron 
ore is obtained from all the coal measures as well as from older formations. 
In 1881 the number of tons obtained from the whole island amounted to 
19,000,000 tons, valued at $32,000,000. The principal ore is an impure 
argillaceous carbonate of iron ; 8) Coal ; in 1880, from all the mines were 
raised 140,324,621 tons. It is stated that the coal deposits of Great Britain 
would last 100 years, should "there be consumed 1,464 million tons a year. 
This calculation includes the entire coal for the depth of 4,000 feet. 

The coal and iron are called the sinews and muscle of Great Britain. 
The British island, though in the western counties hilly and somewhat 
mountainous, is called level. There is a pleasing variety in its landscapes. 
Its climate is one of the most even (free from extremes) in the world. Its 
system of irrigation and drainage very superior. It is in the possession of 
the first class of natural advantages. Its physical resources have aided the 
British nation to climb to the summit of national grandeur. The agri- 
cultural products have now reached, annually, to the sum of $400,000,000; 
reckoning live stock, more than $2,000,000,000. 

Her manufactures (textile) are in cotton, woolen, worsted, flax and 
silk, 7,000 in number; with horse-power, 540,000; hands employed, 1,000,- 
000. Her imports and exports $3,872,645,271. Gold and silver bullion 
and specie, about $200,000,000. 

THE BRITISH SHIPPING. 

In 1875 there were 20,644 sailing vessels and 4,160 steamers registered 
under the merchant shipping act. In 1877, there were 12,098 miles of 
railway open in England and Wales; 2,776 in Scotland. Her army is 
vast, numbering in all parts of the world, 633,033, including regulars, 
army reserves, militia, yeomanry, cavalry, and volunteers. Her navy is 
the most powerful of any on the globe. She has 61 ironclads, about 300 
steam vessels, and 110 sailing vessels. In 1879 there were in commission 
255 vessels. She is mistress of the seas, and encircles the earth with her 
armies. Her institutions are constructed on a most magnificent scale. 
Her cities are noted— her London is one of the world's wonders. Her 
powers, physical, moral, social, religious, civil and political, are nowhere 
surpassed, if equaled. 

The British Museum is the pride of the empire. It combines the 
curious and the wonderful of all ages; what mind can grasp in a lifetime 
the mental resources of its departments ? What a variety in its contents ! 
1) Its printed books; 2) Its maps; 3) Its manuscripts; 4) Its prints and 
drawings ; 5) Its oriental antiquities ; 6) Its Greek and Roman antiqui- 



BRITISH PHASE. 77 

ties ; 7) Coins and medals ; 8) British and Mediaeval antiquities and eth- 
nography ; 9) Natural history; 10) Zoological department; 11) Botanical 
department; 12) Geological department; 13) And its mineral department. 
Such is its interest to all classes of minds that 43.000 persons have passed 
through the building in a single day. We close our remarks on this little 
Island by the following by two noted authors : 

"England! this other Eden; demiparadise ; this fortress built by 
nature for herself, against infections and the hand of war ; this happy 
breed of men, this little world ; this precious stone set in the silver sea, 
which serves it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, 
against the envy of less happier lands; this blessed plot, this earth, this 
England." 

" England, which with Wales is no larger than the state of Georgia, 
stretches, by an illusion, to the dimensions of an empire. The innumer- 
able details, the crowded succession of towns, cities, cathedrals, castles, 
and great and decorated estates, the number and power of the trades and 
guilds, the military strength and splendor, the multitudes of rich and re- 
markable people, the servants and equipages, — all these catching the eye, 
and never allowing it to pause, hide all boundaries by the impression of 
magnificence and endless wealth. To see England well needs a hundred 
years; it is stuffed full with towns, towers, churches, villas, palaces, 
hospitals, and charity houses. In the history of art, it is a long way from 
a cromlech to a York Minster ; yet all the intermediate steps may still be 
traced in this all-preserving island. The climate is warmer by many de- 
grees than that to which it is entitled by latitude. Neither hot nor cold, 
Charles II. said, 'it invited men abroad more days in the year and more 
hours in the day, than any other country.' The frequent rain keeps the 
many rivers full and brings agricultural productions up to the highest 
point. England has plenty of water, of stone, of potter's clay, of coal, of 
salt, and of iron. The land naturally abounds with game ; immense 
heaths and downs are paved with quails, grouse, and woodcock, and the 
shores are animated by water-fowl. The rivers and the surrounding sea 
spawn with fish. There is the drawback of the darkness of the sky ; the 
London fog sometimes justifies the epigram on the climate, ' In a fine day, 
looking up a chimney; in a foul day, looking down one.' England is 
anchored at the side of Europe, and right in the heart of the modern 
world. The sea, which according to Virgil, divided the poor Britons 
utterly from the world, proves to be the ring of marriage with all nations. 
As America, Europe and Asiatic, these Britons have precisely the best 
commercial position in the world." — Emerson. 

" Britain is a miniature of Europe. Shares her mountains, Snowdon 
in Wales, Helvellyn and Skiddaw in Cumberland, the Highlands in Scot- 
land. She has her lakes, the smiling meres of England, the crystal lochs 
that mirror Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond and their brethren. She has 
the picturesque dales and caves of Derbyshire, the fair plains of War- 
wickshire, and Surry, and Bucks, and indeed throughout the realm. In 
Westmoreland and Cumberl9,nd she has a pocket Switzerland. Her mines 



78 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Northumberland soon furnish all the great 
ores, iron, coal, lead, tin and copper. Her quarries are abundant. Her 
soil yields bounteous harvests. Her manufactures bring all nations in her 
debt. Her commerce exceeds that of any other people, and she is the 
grand mart of the globe. The keels of her merchantmen furrow all seas, 
and the smoke of her steamers darken every maritime sky, and plying be- 
tween her and her colonies, invest the world." — Cottage Cyclopedia. 

BY WHAT VARIOUS FAMILIES, OR RACER, HAS THE ISLAND OF GREAT 
BRITAIN BEEN RULED ? 

This island, small as it is, has been the theatre of many bloody revo- 
lutions. Its ancient inhabitants were savages of the order of cannibals. 
Who were its aborigenes? That term had its origin from the exploded 
ideas, that man, like vegetation, sprang out of the earth ; and that, origin- 
ally, he grew up from many centres. The world has been peopled by one 
couple, and from one centre. After the flood, three families peopled the 
earth ; those of Ham, Shem, and Japheth ; — formerly said to be distributed 
as follows : Ham and his posterity settled Africa ; Shem, Asia ; and 
Japheth, Europe and its islands. Further researches have modified this 
view very materially. The most ancient British population will form an 
exception to the above order of all colonization, as we shall see in our in- 
vestigations. The most ancient Britons were Shemitic. How ancient., 
and what were their tribal names, shall now be considered. 

In the slow spread of population after the flood, Europe would not be 
occupied till centuries after the settlement of Asia; and then by nomadic 
races, rather then by a settled population. Britain, being an island, would 
be still later in its settlement. From its location, it would be first occu- 
pied by families from Europe. Does history corroborate this statement? 
Who were the first inhabitants of Great Britain ? And at what period did 
they occupy the island ? 

The earliest population of the British Islands were called Kimmerians 
and Kelts. Who were they? Whence did they come? The Irish, Gauls, 
Welsh, Cornish, Armoricans, Erse, and Manks, are Celtic, (pronounced 
Keltic). It is enough, at present, to trace the Kumri, and Kelts, to their 
European homes 3 after that we shall follow them further toward the sun- 
rising. 

This Nomadic race, before passing over into the British Island, was 
composed of various families : all exceedingly hostile to the settled class of 
mankind, called civilized ; whom they felt at liberty whenever an occasion 
offered, to attack and plunder. They were the scouts and pickets of the 
original army of occupation — our earliest histories found the Kimmerians 
the most advanced in the northwest part of the European continent; and 
the Kelts in the southwestern portion of Europe. They had gradually 
moved towards western and northern Europe till they were stopped by the 
ocean. After occupying for centuries the extreme west of Europe, they 
passed over into Britain ; and, finding it unoccupied, except by unbroken 
forests and denizen wild beasts, they gradually spread over the island. 



BRITISH PHASE. 79 

The original Britons were, therefore, Kimmerian or Keltic. They 
spoke the Keltic, the first of the three European generic languages: — the 
western, and consequently, the oldest. The middle European language is 
the Gothic or German; the eastern is the Slavonic or Russian language. 
These three generic tongues form the parent stock of the European lan- 
guages, and mark three distinct waves of western emigration. The mem- 
bers of the Keltic family are the Welsh, the Gaelic, the Irish, the Cornish, 
the Armoric, the Manks, and the ancient Gaulish tongue. The Kelts 
occupied the British Island some centuries before Christ (B. C. 700). The 
ancient Britons were conquered by the Romans; first, under Julius Csesar; 
and by Agricola. It remained a Roman Province four centuries, during 
which domination it came under Roman civilization. It being abandoned 
by the Romans, it was invaded and conquered by the Angles and Saxons. 
During their dominion, the island was exposed to the attacks of the sea- 
kings (pirates), from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Still the Anglo- 
Saxon reign continued till their conquest by the Normans, or North men 
(Dnaes and Norwegians) A. D. 1013. It continued under Danish or Norse 
rulers till 1042, when it reverted into the Saxon hands of Edward the 
Confessor. It was restored to the Norse family by William the Conqueror 
A. D. 1066. The Norman French was made the legal language of the 
realm. From this time, and onward, — the Anglo-Saxon — was the ruling 
power of Great Britain. A Briton of the present British Empire is a mix- 
ture of all the Keltic and Gothic families ; still we shall call him by the 
name of the governing race — Anglo-Saxon; — and still more definitely — 
Saxon. 

THE BRITISH OR SAXON EMPIRE. 

We shall examine that family. 1) In its European home, a) Its in- 
fancy. 6) During its age of sea-kings, or piracy, c) Its conquests in 
England and on the continent, d) We shall follow the family eastward to 
its exile abodes, e) Then trace it to its paternal residence. /) Then we 
shall trace the chronological order of its western emigrations. 1) Anglo- 
Saxon in his European home. Anglo-Saxon is a term compounded of 
Angle, and Saxon ; of the Angles, a passing notice will be sufficient. 
Who were the Angles ? 

The Angles were Goths, Scythians, or Germans (a modern name). 
They belonged to the family of the Suevi. They first appeared to the 
Romans dwelling in the woods of north Germany, between the Weser and 
Elbe. They moved north, they settled in Schleswig between the Jutes 
and the Saxons. They worshipped " Terram Matrem " — Mother Earth 
(Tacitus) — the wife of Odin. In the fifth century, the more daring of the 
tribe, joined the Saxons in their conquest of England, and gave their 
name to the island, (Lat. Anglia, Anglo-Saxon, Englaland). The re- 
mainder of the tribe mingled with the Danes. The district of Angeln is 
their modern home — pop. 50,000; sq. m. 330. 

As the Jutes were associated with the Anglo-Saxons, we append a note 
from the history of the Anglo-Saxons, by Sharon Turner, F. A. S., R. A. 



80 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

S. L., author of the " The sacred History of the World." " But those allies 
of the Saxons with whom the history of Britain is most connected, were 
the Jutes and Angles. The Jutes inhabited Jutland, or rather part of it, 
which was formerly called South Jutland, but which is now known as 
Sleswick. The little band first introduced into England by Hengist and 
Horsa, were Jutes. Their name has been written with all the caprices of 
orthography. (His note then follows.) As G-eatum, Giotae, Jutae, Gutae, 
Geatani, Jotuni, Jetae, Jutae, Vitae, etc. The " Vetus Chronicon Hol- 
satiae," p. 54, says the Danes and Jutes are Jews of the tribe of Dan! 
And Munster as wisely calls the Helvetii, Hill-Vitae, or Jutes of the hills! 
The Angles have been derived from different parts of the north of Ger- 
many. Engern, in Westphalia, was a favorite position, because it seemed 
to suit the geography of Tacitus ; Angloen, in Pomerania, had good pre- 
tensions from the similarity of its name ; and part of the duchies of Meck- 
lenburg and Lunenburg was chosen out of respect to Ptolemy ; but the 
assertion of Bede and Alfred, which Camden has adopted, has, from its 
truth, prevailed over all. In the days of Tacitus and Ptolemy, the Angli 
may have been in Westphalia or Mecklenburg, or elsewhere ; but at the 
era of the Saxon invasion, they were resident in the district of Anglen, in 
the duchy of Sleswick. 

The duchy of Sleswick from the river Leveson, north of Kiel, to To- 
besket, on which stands Colding; but that particular position, which an 
ancient Saxon author calls Old England, extends from the city of Sleswick 
to Flensberg. Sleswick was the capital of Anglen, and was distinguished 
in the eleventh century for its population and wealth. On a note he says, 
"The Angli might be made the parents of the Jutes. That they were 
kindred nations is clear from the identity of their language. Our Kentish 
Jutes have always talked as good English as our Mercian, and Norfolk, 
and Yorkshire Angles. Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, seem to have been 
coeval twigs of the same Teutonic branch of the great Scythian or Gothic 
tree. Some dialectic differences of pronunciation may be traced, but no 
real diversity of language." — Turner. 

We have said all that is necessary for a clear understanding of the 
relationships of the Jutes and Angles, and of their European location. 
We are now prepared to investigate the European history of the Saxons. 



EUROPEAN HOME OP THE SAXONS. 

As introductory remarks, we shall again quote the history of Sharon 
Turner : — " The Anglo-Saxons were a people who transported themselves 
from the Cimbric peninsula and its vicinity, in the fifth and sixth cen- 
turies, into England. They were branches of the great Saxon confedera- 
tion, which, from the Elbe, extended itself at last to the Rhine. The 
hostilities of this formidable people had long distressed the western 
regions of Europe ; and when the Gothic nations overran the most valu- 
able provinces of Rome, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain soon after the 
Romans quitted it. The ancient inhabitants, and the progeny of the 



BRITISH PHASE. 81 

Roman settlers, disappeared as the new conquerors advanced, or accepted 
their yolse; and Saxon laws, Saxon language, Saxon manners, govern- 
ment, and institutions, overspread the land. This revolution, than which 
history presents to us none more complete, has made the fortunes of the 
Saxons, during every period, interesting to us. Though other invaders 
have appeared in the island, yet the eflFects of the Anglo-Saxon settle- 
ments have prevailed beyond every other. Our language, our government, 
and our laws, display our Gothic ancestors in every part; and they live, 
not merely in our annals and traditions, but in our civil institutions and 
perpetual discourse. The parent-tree is indeed greatly amplified, by 
branches engrafted on it from other regions, and by the new shoots which 
the accidents of time, and the improvements of society, have produced; 
but it discovers yet its Saxon origin, and retains its Saxon properties, 
though more than thirteen centuries have rolled over, with all their tem- 
pests and vicissitudes. Although the Saxon name became on the con- 
tinent, the appellation of a confederacy of nations, yet, at first, it denoted 
a single state. The Romans began to remark it during the second century 
of the Christian era; until that period, it had escaped the notice of the 
conquerors of the world, and the happy obscurity was rewarded by the 
absence of that desolation which their ambition poured profusely on 
mankind. 

THEIR PARTICULAR EUROPEAN LOCATION. — AS EARLY AS A. D. 141. 

Ptolemy, the Alexandrian, in his Geography, says that there was a 
people called Saxons, on the north side of the Elbe, on the neck of Cim- 
bric Chersonesus, and three small islands at the mouth of this river. The 
Saxons were then of but little note, since it was one of seven nations that 
dwelt in a small peninsula (Jutland, Sleswick, and Holstein). How long 
they had then dwelt in Europe, history does not state. That they resided 
in this northern European home, in the time of Tacitus, the Roman his- 
torian is quite certain, though not named. Tacitus has not given the 
name of all the German tribes ; but, simply those that were noted among 
the Romans. In the days of Tacitus the Saxons were obscure, and in 
such a swampy and retired spot that they had escaped the cruel arms of 
the world's conquerors. One thing is quite sure, however, they did not 
spring fortuitously from their Mother Earth, as claimed by the Athenians, 
under the symbol of a " golden grasshopper." Ptolemy, writing Geog- 
raphy, names seven nations, dwelling in the Cimbric Chersonesus; Taci- 
tus, writing history, names only four, such only, as had a record among 
the Romans. This fully accounts for the omission. Tacitus is more par- 
ticular than Strabo in his German Geography; and Ptolemy, being still 
later is more particular than Tacitus. Here let us state, in the outset that 
Europe has been peopled by three great stocks, differing in language, man- 
ners and customs. 1. The first and oldest were the Kimmerians and the 
Kelts. 2. The Goths, Scythians, or Germans. 3. The Slavonians and 
Sarmatians, occupying severally the western, the middle, and the east of 
Europe. Their geographical locations fixes the order of their migrations. 



82 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

" The second stock of the European population is peculiarly interest- 
ing to us, because from its branches not only our own immediate ancestors, 
but also those of the most celebrated nations of modern Europe, have un- 
questionably descended. The Anglo-Saxon, Lowland Scotch, Normans, 
Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Lombards, and 
Franks, have all sprung from that great fountain of the human race, 
which we have distinguished by the terms Scythian, German, or Gothic." 
— S. Turner. 

LAW OF DISTRIBUTION OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 

Anthropology opens into a very extended field for investigation. The 
two great divisions of this science are: a. Ethnography, and b. Ethnology; 
the one generic, the other two specific. Anthropology, gives the natural 
history of man. Ethnography, gives the details of the masses of human 
organizations, as they exist in families, tribes, and nations. Ethnology, 
treats of the distinct features of nations and races. A comprehensive di- 
vision is the following. 1. "Zoological anthropology, which treats of the 
relation of man to the brute creation. 2. Descriptive anthropology, or eth- 
nology, which classifies and describes the various divisions and subdivisions 
of mankind, and marks out their geographical distribution. 3. General 
anthropology, which M. Broca calls, 'the biology of the human race,' which 
says a recent writer on the subject, ' borrows and collates from all science 
facts and phenomena usually investigated in men as individuals, but 
which relate to men as groups of individuals,' and compares these with 
other facts relating to other groups of individuals. The study and bare 
description of a single negro's skull is mere human anatomy ; the study of 
a group of negroes' skulls belonging to other races, would be a specimen of 
the work done by general anthropology." — Library of Universal Knowledge. 
The most distinguished authors on this subje^^t are Blumenbach, Dr. Pritch- 
ard, Dr. Latham, Retzius, Huxley, Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, .Darwin, 
and Agassiz. The great question of the science is, did man, originally, 
spring from one, or from many centres? Blumenbach, Drs. Pritchard and 
Latham hold to the unity of origin ; the other authors to the plurality of 
centres. The greatest power of intellect and of knowledge defend the 
unity. 

THE TWO CLASSES OF MANKIND. 

a. The settled, or civilized class, of which we have types in the Egyp- 
tians, and the Babylonians and Persians, b. The nomadic, or savage class, 
of which the Kelts and Goths, Scythians, or Germans were types in every 
community, these two classes are conspicuous, the settled and the roving. 
The roving are not satisfied long in any locality. They are the world's 
scouts ; its first inhabitants ; its pioneers. These classes we have in our 
own country ; those who are constantly on the look-out for new homes ; 
always retiring before the march of refinement. Liberty is their cry. No 
restraint of law. It must be admitted that this migratory class has pro- 
duced the world's great revolutions. Their mission is necessary to the 



BRITISH PHASE. »3 

spread of the human family. What would the world now be without the 
German? It may be asked, which class first settled Europe? This ques- 
tion is very readily answered, — the Nomads. For the Romans and Gre- 
cians, at an early period, dwelt in southern Europe, it is true; yet the 
Kelts and Germans are the principal occupants of this grand division; 
hence Europe is called by historians, "The German Continent." 

THREE DISTINCT MIGRATIONS. 

There have been three distinct migrations into Europe, from the east : 
a. The Kimmerians and the Kelts, dwelling- in the southwest, the west and 
northwest of Europe — in Spain, France, and Germany, b. The Scythians, 
Goths, or Germans, who dwell in middle or central Europe, c. The Slavo- 
nians and Sarmatians, who inhabit eastern Europe. The Russians belong 
to the third class. These three migrations are so distinct, and so far apart 
in time, that they are marked by three distinct dialects — and three distinct 
locations. This is the key of the proper understanding of European eth- 
nology. 

SAXONS IN THEIR EUROPEAN HOME. 

Let us turn again to the Saxons. Their country was composed of six 
districts : three islands at the mouth of the Elbe, and three small provinces 
north of the Elbe on the CimbricChersonesus. The islands were a. North 
Strant, formerly torn from South Jutland by the violence of the waves ; 
once about 20 miles long and 7 broad. Noted, at first, for its agriculture 
and fish ; much damaged by the sea. The inundations of A. D. 1300, 1483, 
1532, 1615, and 1634, were terrible, more particularly the last, which sub- 
merged the entire island, destroying 6408 persons, 1332 houses, apd 50,000 
head of cattle. 

6. The island of Busen ; north of the mouth of the Elbe, three miles 
long, by two miles in breadth ; once supposed to form a part of the main- 
land ; on a level with a stormy sea, it is surrounded by a strong dyke. It 
contains three parishes, as many villages, and is moderately fertile. 

c. The most noted island is " Heilig island," which means sacred 
(holy) land; ceded to Great Britain, by the King of Denmark, August 20, 
1814. It is situated in a long recess, 9 miles from the mouth of the Elbe. 
It is the first island that occurs in the ocean. It is very fruitful, rich in 
corn, and a nurse of cattle and birds. It has one hill and no trees ; it is 
surrounded with the steepest rocks, with only a single entrance, where 
there is fresh water. It is a place venerated by all sailors, and especially 
by all pirates." — S. Turner. 

Pontanus (1630) says, "It had formerly seven parishes, and from its 
inhabitants and incidents we learn that it was once much larger than it is 
at present ; for in our times the sea receding, the soil has been worn down 
and carried away, on all sides by the violence of the waves. Its banner is 
a ship in full sail." "It has a safe and capacious harbor, very deep and 
open to the south. This sometimes holds 100 ships of burthen, and defends 



84 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

them from the north and west winds. Their food consists of their oats, 
and the produce of their nets. But though sacred in human estimation j 
the elements have not respected the island. In the year 800, a furious 
tempest from the northwest occasioned the greater portion to be swallowed 
by the waves. In 1300 and 1500, it suffered materially from the same 
cause; but the inundations of 1649 were so destructive, that but a small 
part of the island survived it. If another attack should wash away the 
sandy downs, scarce one-sixth of the present population could subsist. — 
S. Turner, It has a sea-mark, and light-house for the navigation of the 
Elbe. This island was a marine school for the Saxon — as all the men be- 
came experienced pilots. It is now on the ocean highway between Eng- 
land and the continent. 

ITS DIVISIONS. 

Saxon territory on the continent, is north of the Elbe, and on the 
western side of Cimbric peninsula, and is divided into three districts : a, 
Ditmarsia. b. Stormaria. c. Holsatia. As we shall have occasion to use 
these territories, we subjoin their description from the history of Sharon 
Turner, than whom no author can be more reliable, a. " Ditmarsia is 
separated on the north from Sleswick by the Eyder, and from Stormaria on 
on the south by the Stoer. It fronts the island of Heiligland and Busen, 
and extends in length thirty-seven miles, and in breadth twenty-three. 
Its general aspect is a soil, low and marshy, and strong mounds are neces- 
sary to keep the ocean to its natural limits. The land on the coast is favor- 
able to corn and cattle ; but in the interior appear sterile sands, and 
uncultivated marshes. Its inhabitants, like those of all unfruitful regions, 
have been tenacious of the right of enjoying their poverty in independence, 
and the nature of the country has favored their military exertions. Their 
habits of warfare and scanty livelihood produce a harshness of disposition 
which often amounted to ferocity." (Their banner was an armed soldier 
on a white horse). 

" Below Ditmarsia, and reaching to the Elbe, was Stormaria. The 
Stoer, which named the province, confined it on the north. The Suala, 
Trave, and Billa ; determined the rest of its extent. It was almost one 
slimy marsh. The wet and low situation of Stormaria and Ditmarsia 
exactly corresponds with the Roman account of the Saxons living in in- 
accessible marshes. (Saxones, gentem in oceani littoribus et paludibus inviis 
sitam). The Stoer is friendly to navigation and fishing. Stormaria is 
somewhat quadrangular, and its sides may be estimated at thirty-three 
miles. 

Divided from Sleswick by the Levesou on the north, bounded by 
Wagria on the east, and by the Trave on the south ; Holsatia stretches its 
numerous woods to Ditmarsia. The local appellation of the region thus 
confined has been by a sort of geographical catachresis, applied to denomi- 
nate all that country which is contained within the Eyder, the Elbe and 
the Trave. Their country received from the bounty of nature one peculiar 
characteristic: the loftier Holsatia presented a continued succession of 



BRITISH PHASE. 85 

forests, and of plains which admitted cultivation." Such a country did 
God select, out of all Europe, where he might educate a people (the Saxons) 
to rule the seas with its navies, and belt the world with its armies and 
merchantmen. 

No destiny, for seven centuries, could be less probable than the one 
determined by the Almighty for the Anglo-Saxon. Planted among rocks, 
sands, and impenetrable swamps, exposed to tempests from land and sea — 
their physical surroundings required the people to put forth every possible 
effort to supply the necessaries of life. The Romans could not penetrate 
their marshes, nor had they any plunder to attract these southern con- 
querors. Had they been exposed like the more open tribes of Germany, 
they would have failed in their future mission. He that is working out 
his own plans among the nations, kept the Saxons under a severe private 
tuition till they should be able to resist the Roman corruptions, as well as 
to succeed against its armies. There are two particular movements, in 
which we can discern the Divine agency : 1. The formation of the Saxon 
confederacy on the continent. 2. The evacuation of the island of Great 
Britain by the Romans, after having subjugated and held it for four cen- 
turies. These were both accomplished by the increasing power of the 
Saxon. The Saxon Confederation, or league on the continent, prevented 
the entire conquest of Germany by the Romans, and brought such a pow- 
erful combination of German tribes against the Roman empire, that the 
Roman legions had to be recalled from Britain. These events had to be 
postponed to give the Saxons time to develop their native powers. 

EDUCATION ON LAND AND SEA. 

This preparatory Saxon training we shall now briefly describe. — What 
was the peculiar character of the Saxon educational drill ? They had a 
land, and a sea drill. In their land, or domestic education, they had to 
contend against land and water. Their three islands were of little natural 
worth. They had to contend against a barren soil, and a tempestuous sea. 
Their three continental districts, were similar in their physical structure, 
excepting Holsatia. which was well timbered. Their ocean discipline was 
peculiar; and, therefore, demands more special notice. The men were 
called early into sea-service, as pilots, or as commanders of vessels, or as 
private sea-men. Those seas, by which they were principally surrounded, 
were stormy, making their ocean life one of great danger. The Saxons, 
during their occupancy of their European swamps, were savages; and 
they lived like savages, and were occupied as savages. They were idol- 
atrous : a set of pagan warriors. " They were fearless, active, and success- 
ful pirates." They were dreadful for their courage and agility. The 
Emperor Julian, who had lived among barbarions, and who had fought 
with some Saxon tribes, says that they were distinguished amongst 
their neighbors for vehemence and valor. Zosimus, their contemporary, 
expresses the general feeling of his age when he ranks them as superior to 
others in energy, strength, and warlike fortitude. " Their ferocious quali- 
ties were nourished by the habit of indiscriminate depredation. 



^^ THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

It was from the cruelty and destructiveness, as well as from the sud- 
denness of their incursions, that they were dreaded more than any other 
people. Like the Danes and Norwegians, their successors and assailants, 
they desolated when they plundered, with sword and flame. It was con- 
sistency in such men to be inattentive to danger. They launched their 
predatory vessels, and suffered the wind to blow them to any foreign coast, 
indifferent whether the result was a depredation unresisted, or the deathful 
conflict. Such was their cupidity, or their brutal hardihood, that they 
often preferred embarking in the tempest which might shipwreck them, 
because at such a season, their victims would be more unguarded. — Turner. 

IS THERE ANY WANT OP HARMONY BETWEEN THE WRITINGS OF PETER AND 
PAUL RELATIVE TO THE FUTURE? 

Not as we understand them. Peter distinctly declares, that, in Paul's 
letters on future topics, there "are some things hard to be ^understood, 
which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as (they do) also the 
other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." 2 Peter iii. 16. Peter says 
that Paul in all (his) epistles spake of those things, about which he 
(Peter) was then writing. About what was Peter then writing? He was 
writing about the last days; its scoffers: the day of judgment, how it sliall 
come, and what it will do ; what will succeed it, and the duty of Chris- 
tians to look for that day and earnestly desire it. He speaks of the con- 
flagration of this earth, and the introduction of the new earth— as the 
dwelling place of the righteous. 

Paul's epistles were written before the second epistle of Peter, since 
they had all been read by him and examined, or he could not have stated 
their character — "difficult of understanding." Since Peter wrote, after he 
had examined Paul's writings, and wrote on one of the same subjects, 
handled by Paul ; and since each one wrote by the dictation of the same 
Spirit, and, since the Spirit does not contradict itself, it is quite evident 
that Peter wrote nothing contrary to the views expressed by Paul. 

A DIFFICULTY EXPLAINED. 

Again, since Peter regarded Paul's writings relative to the future judg- 
ment, difficult to be understood, it would be Peter's aim to simplify Paul's 
declarations. We may then regard Peter's epistle chap, iii., as supplemental 
to Paul's, and an exposition of Paul's meaning — we regard what Peter says 
as a commentary on what Paul says — and expressed in the plainest terms 
that an uneducated man could handle. Peter, therefore, describes the 
conflagration and its results in the terms of ordinary language ; and yet, 
not to contradict Paul. Peter's conflagration is literal, for, no attribute is 
ascribed to any agent or object that does not belong to it. As Peter speaks 
of a literal earth, and literal fire, so must Paul. Peter, speaking of the 
earth and its contents, makes the burning that of literal fire. " The works 
that are therein shall be burned" (utterly burned). Paul says, "If any 
man's works shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be 



BRITISH PHASE. 87 

saved, yet so as by fire." How can a man's moral acts be burned by literal 
fire ? Literal persons are built on to *' Jesus the Christ." If they are true 
Christians, the man that built them into the building, will have pay. 
Each person is a star in his crown. If, on the contrary, the man (min- 
ister) has built in hypocrites and unconverted persons ; they will be 
burned, yet, he (the minister), if he is a true Christian, will be saved; the 
fire burns his works, but spares him. Literal fire in both cases. 

SAXON MODE OP LIFE IN HIS EUROPEAN HOME. 

" Their warfare did not orginate from the more generous, or the more 
pardonable of man's evil passions. It was the offspring of the basest. 
Their swords were not unsheathed by ambition or resentment. The love 
of plunder and of cruelty was their favorite habit; and hence they at- 
tacked, indifferently, every coast which they could reach. 

Inland provinces were not protected from their invasion. From ig- 
norance, necessity, or policy, they traversed the ocean in boats, framed of 
osiers, (water willows), and covered with skins sewed together; and such 
was their skill or their prodigality of life, that in these they sported in the 
tempests of the German Ocean. 

It is possible that men who had seen the vessels in which the Francs 
had escaped from the Pontus, and who had been twice instructed by Im- 
perial usurpers in the naval art, might have constructed more important 
war ships, if their judgment had approved. Although their isles, and 
their maritime provinces of Ditmarsia and Stormaria, were barren of wood, 
yet Holsatia abounded with it; and if their defective land-carriage pre- 
vented the frequency of this supply, the Elbe was at hand to float down 
inexhaustible stores from the immense forests of Germany. 

They may have preferred their light skiffs from an experience of their 
superior utility. When their fatal incursions had incited the Romans to 
fortify and to garrison the frontier of Britain and Gaul, the Saxons di- 
rected their enmity against the inland regions. For their peculiar vessels 
no coast was too shallow, no river too small ; they dared to ascend the 
streams for eighty or an hundred miles ; and if other plunder invited, or 
danger pressed, they carried their vessels from one river to another, and 
thus escaped with facility from the most superior foe. 

Of the Saxons, an author of the fifth century says, " You see as many 
piratical leaders as you behold rowers, for they all command, obey, teach, 
and learn the art of pillage. Hence after your greatest caution, still 
greater care is requisite. This enemy is fiercer than any other; if you be 
unguarded they attack; if prepared they elude you. They despise the 
opposing, and destroy the unwary ; if they pursue they overtake ; if they 
fly, they escape. Shipwrecks discipline them, not deter; they do not 
merely know, they are familiar with all the dangers of the sea; a tempest 
gives them security and success, for it divests the meditated land of the 
apprehension of a descent. In the midst of waves and threatening rocks 
they rejoice at their peril, because they hope to surprise." — Sharon Turner, 



88 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Zosimus, the Roman historian, thus speaks of their land expeditions, 
" Their land incursions were sometimes conducted with all the craft of 
robbers. Dispersed into many bodies, they plundered by night, and when 
the day appeared, they concealed themselves in the woods, feasting on the 
booty they had gained." Historians of the 4th and 5th centuries generally 
speak of the Saxons as superior to others in their achievements and 
courage. The habits of the Saxons caused them to resemble the dark 
physiognomies of Asia and Africa, rather than the fair, pleasing, and blue- 
eyed countenances, possessed by the Teutonic race. They had high pride 
of character. Twenty-nine Saxons strangled themselves to avoi<l being 
brought into a theatre for a gladiatorial show. " Their persons were of the 
largest size. On the continent they were so proud of their forms and their 
descent, and so anxious to perpetuate them, that they were averse to mar- 
riages with other nations. Hence the color of the hair of their males is 
mentioned as uniform." 

The government of the Saxons was patriarchal, as shown by the 
terms applied to their kings and civil officers. Josephus was called, ealdre 
over Egyptaland — an elder over the land of Egypt. A British general is 
called ealdorman. Bede says, " The ancient Saxons have no king (such as 
modern kings), but many chiefs set over their people, who, when war 
presses, draw lots equally ; and whomsoever the chance points out, they all 
follow as leader and obey during the war. The war concluded, all the 
chiefs become again of equal power." 

Their religion was pagan ; and, at first, without an idol or a temple. 
But when they invaded Britain, they had idols, temples, and priests. 
Their temples were surrounded with enclosures ; they were pi-ofaned if 
lances were thrown into them ; it was not lawful for a priest to bear arms, 
or to ride but on a mare. " Some of the subjects of their adoration we 
find in their names for the days of the weeks : Sunday is the Sun's day, a 
male deity; Monday is Moon's day, a female deity; Tuesday is Tiw's day, 
not known, only the name; Wednesday is Woden's day, chief god of the 
Saxons, the same as Odin of Denmark and Iceland; Thursday is Thunre's 
day, same as Thor; Friday is Friga's day, wife of Woden; Saturday is 
Seterne's day." They had traditions of the creation, and of the destruc- 
tion of the earth by fire. We shall close our sketch of the Saxon sojourn 
in Europe with a notice of the sea-kings and vikingr of the North, No 
topic can better illustrate the Saxon sea-discipline and training, than a 
sketch of the lives of the sea-kings of the North. Our historic notice will 
be taken from the most authentic sources; principally from the history of 
the Anglo-Saxons by Sharon Turner. 

The sea-kings of the North (in which school were the Saxons), were a 
race of beings whom Europe dreaded, and beheld with horror. Without a 
yard of territorial property, without any towns, or visible nation, with no 
wealth but their ships, no force but their crews, and no hope but from 
their swords, the sea-kings swarmed on the boisterous ocean, and plun- 
dered in every district they could approach. Never to sleep under a 
smoky roof, nor to indulge in the cheerful cup over the hearth, were the 



BRITISH PHASE. 89 

boasts of these watery sovereigns, who not only flourished in the plunder 
of the sea and its shores, but who sometimes amassed so much booty, and 
enlisted so many followers, as to be able to assault provinces for permanent 
conquest. 

It is declared to have been a law or custom in the North, that one of 
the male children should be selected to remain at home, to inherit the 
government. The rest were exiled to the ocean, to wield their sceptres 
amid the turbulant waters. The consent of the northern societies entitled 
all men of royal descent, who -^^ssumed piracy as a profession, to enjoy the 
name of kings, though they possessed no territory. Hence the sea-kings 
were kinsmen of the land-sovereigns. While the eldest son ascended the 
paternal throne, the rest of the family hastened, like petty Neptunes, to 
establish their kingdoms in the waves. When any of the land-kings were 
expelled, their inheritance by others, they also sought a continuance of 
their dignity upon the ocean. When the younger branches of a reigning 
dynasty were about to become sea-kings, the ships and their requisite 
equipments were furnished as a patrimonial right, and perhaps as a 
political convenience. 

SEA-KINGS. 

The ocean swarmed with sea-kings. It is said that one Danish sov- 
ereign destroyed seventy of the honorable but direful race. Not only the 
children of the kings, but every man of importance, equipped ships, and 
roamed the seas to acquire property by force. At the age of twelve, the 
sons of the great were in action under military tutors." Piracy was the 
most honorable, and the most wealthy occupation. No one was respected 
that did not return home in winter with ships laden with booty. " The 
spoil consisted of every necessary of life; clothes, domestic utensils, cattle, 
which they killed and prepared on the shores they ravaged, slaves, and 
other property." 

" So reputable was the pursuit, that parents were even anxious to 
compel their children into the dangerous and malevolent occupation. 
Parents commanded their gold, silver, and other property to be buried 
with them, that their offspring might be driven by necessity to engage in 
the conflicts, and to participate in the glory of maritime piracy. Inherited 
property was despised." " They sought their food by their sails, and in- 
habited the seas." 

During the summer months, the land-kings followed the amusement 
of piracy. They first filled the bays with their ships; after a time they 
covered the German ocean. They cultivated paroxysms of brutal insanity 
— howling like wolves and dogs, biting their shields, and tearing like 
bears (to intimidate their enemies). They had no kind feeling. " Such is 
but an imperfect sketch of the character of these pirate sea-kings — then, 
rulers of the ocean : parents of that race who now covers every sea with 
its victorious fleets. Such a sea-training, severe and savage in its nature, 
seemed to be required to develop a race of ocean rulers. The conquest of 
Britain by the Saxons was the result of such an ocean discipline. But 



90 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

who were these Saxons? Not a race indigenous to Europe. We shall now 
trace them eastward to the land in which they dwelt before they migrated 
to Europe. 

INCREASE OP THE ANGLO-SAXON. 

John the Baptist said of Christ, " He must increase but I must de- 
crease." How true of the Saxons compared with many other races. Look 
at the present condition of many of the Asiatic races, and of the North 
American Indians. Take the nations that composed the four Gentile em- 
pires. What is their present state? What vitality or power of increase 
do they exhibit ? Their original vigor became exhausted as their luxuries 
increased. Their empires fell to pieces, and their migratory movements 
ceased. Such has been the fate of all the great Gentile families. They 
have had their helpless infancy, their roving youth, their active manhood, 
and the fixedness of old age. 

Look at the indolent savages of America. Whence came they ? What 
vicissitudes cast the poor Indians upon our shores ? A tempestuous ocean, 
or an ice-bridge; not the promptings of a genius of discovery, or a restless 
spirit of enterprise, which now drives the active population over all seas, 
and into the extremes of every zone. How and by whom Europe was first 
peopled has been the subject of an endless speculation. One thing is quite 
sure, it was not an original centre of human radiation. It was first 
peopled by emigration from some other country. Sharon Turner thus 
speaks, " The most authentic facts that can be now gleaned from ancient 
history, concur with the most probable traditions, to prove, that Europe 
has been peopled by three great streams of population from the East, 
which have followed each other, at intervals so distinct, as to possess lan- 
guages separable from each other. The earliest of these we shall find to 
have comprised the Kimmerian and Keltic race. The second consisted of 
the Scythian, Gothic and German tribes : from whom most of the modern 
nations of continental Europe have descended. The third, and most re- 
cent, comprehends the Slavonian and Sarmatian nations, who were border- 
ing on the second race, as they spread over Germany ; and who have now 
established themselves in Poland, Bohemia, Russia, and their vicinities. 
It is from the two first genera of the European population that the ancient 
inhabitants of England descended." 

The primeval residence from which these three emigrations came is 
somewhere in the East, supposed to be Central Asia. This we may affirm, 
that they came from a populous, vital centre. We have evidence of our 
statement, in the German nations that overran the Latin and Greek em- 
pires; the Germans in the vigor of youth, the Greeks and Romans in the 
decrepitude of declining years. But we are more particularly interested in 
the spread of that division of the German family called Saxons. They were 
not indigenous in Europe, in the British Isles, nor yet in America; neither 
did they originally spring from an Oceanic home ; yet, what people has 
excelled the Saxons in their national vitality and rapid increase? Asa 
people we see them in the front rank of the northwestern army of the 



BRITISH PHASE. 91 

Scythian, Gothic or German migration ; they settle on three small islands 
at the mouth of the Elbe. Occupying three little cantons on the con- 
tinent, composed of barren sands and impenetrable swamps, they form a 
confederacy of German nations. This country being too circumscribed to 
accommodate their rapid increase, they conquered and took possession of 
Britain. After some centuries they swarm into America. They now 
reckon about sixty swarms, occupying every part of the globe. Such 
effects must have adequate causes. 

SAXON HISTORY. 

Of the three migrations from the east into Europe, viz., the Keltic, 
the German, and the Slavonic, the Saxons belong to the second, or Ger- 
man. This position is not disputed. All ethnologists admit their German 
origin. The questions which we are to settle are, 1. When did the Saxons 
arrive at their European settlement? 2. From what Eastern home did 
they migrate? 3. How long had they dwelt there? 4. From what 
original stock did they ascend ? These questions cover the disputed ter- 
ritory, and will require an examination into the origin of the German 
family and of the first settlement of Europe, and especially the rise of the 
Aryan family. These topics involve the history of man since the flood, 
and the peopling of the earth by the three sons of Noah. 

1. When did the Saxons arrive at their European territory ? a. They 
were in the front rank of the German, Scythian or Gothic migration. 
Their location is proof of this proposition. They were next to the Kim- 
merians or Kelts who occupied the extreme west of Europe. As they are 
located in the order of their migration, the Saxons must have pressed, 
closely, the rear of the Kimmerians. Such is their order in the peninsula 
of Jutland, or the Cimbric peninsula. How many centuries had they 
occupied that peninsula before they invaded and conquered England? 
Their conquests of Britain was in the fifth and sixth centuries after Christ. 
If we can find when they arrived at the Cimbric peninsula, our question 
will be answered. Ptolemy, the Alexandrian, found a people called 
Saxons, in the Cimbric peninsula, A. D. 141. It is evident that they were 
there as early as the days of Tacitus, though not named. As the Kelts 
and Kimmerians were in the west of Europe as early as B. C. 600, and 
since they were driven there by the Germans, and, since the Saxons 
were among the firs.t of the German migration, we may safely fix their 
European settlement as early as B. C. 500. This we will fix as the date, in 
the absence of positive testimony. 

2. From what Eastern home did the Saxons migrate ? As they were 
an element in the Scythic migration, they were Scythians ; and therefore 
came from Scythia. But, according to Herodotus, there were two Scythias, 
one in Europe, the other in Asia, beyond the Caspian and Jaxartes. The 
European Scythia is the European Sarmatia of a later date, now European 
Russia, The name Scythia was early applied to all northeastern Europe 
and northern Asia. At a later date its location was east of the Caspian 



92 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Sea. The Germans were not its original inhabitants. Sharon Turner 
thus speaks, " The first appearance of the Scythian tribes in Europe may- 
be placed, according to Strabo and Homer, about the eighth, or, according 
to Herodotus, in the seventh century before the Christian era. Herodotus 
likewise states, that the Scythians declared their nation to be more recent 
than any other, and that they reckoned only one thousand years between 
Targitaos, their first king, and the aggression of Darius. The first scenes 
of their civil existence and of their progressive power were in Asia, to the 
east of the Araxes. Here they multiplied and extended their territorial 
limits, for some centuries, unknown to Europe. Their general appellation 
among themselves was Scoloti, but the Greeks called them Scythians 
(wanderers, nomads) and Scuthoi. To this judicious and probable account 
of Herodotus, he says, that the Scythians, formerly inconsiderable and 
few, possessed a narrow region on the Araxes; but by degrees became more 
powerful in numbers and courage. They extended their boundaries on 
all sides ; till at last they raised their nation to great empire and glory. 
One of their kings becoming valiant and skilful in the art of war, they 
added to their territory the mountainous regions about Caucasus and also 
the plains toward the ocean, and the Palus Mseotis, with the other regions 
near the Tanais (Don). Thus, according to Diodorus, the nation increased, 
and had kings worthy of remembrance. The Sakai, the Massagetai, and 
the Arimaspoi, drew their origin from them. The Massagetai seem to 
have been the most eastern branch of the Scythian nation. Wars arising 
between them and the other Scythic tribes, an emigration from the latter 
took place, according to the account which Diodorus selects, as in his 
opinion the most authentic, which occasioned their entrance into Europe. 
Such feuds and wars have contributed, more than any other cause, to dis- 
perse through the world its uncivilized inhabitants. 

The emigrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of A^sia, and, 
invading the Kimmerians, suddenly appeared in Europe, in the seventh 
century before the Christian era (B, C. 600-700). Part of the Kimmerians, 
flying into Asia Minor, some of the Scythian hords pursued them ; but, 
turning in the direction different from that which the Kimmerians 
traversed, they missed their intended prey and fell unintentionally upon 
the Medes. They defeated the Medes, pressed on towards Egypt, and 
governed those parts of Asia for twenty-eight years, till Cyaxares, the king 
of Media, at last expelled them. 

The Scythian tribes, however, continued to flock into Europe; and in 
the reign of Darius, their European colonies were sufficiently numerous 
and celebrated to excite the ambition of the Persian monarch, after his 
capture of Babylon ; but all his efforts against them failed. In the time 
of Herodotus they had gained an important footing in Europe. They 
seem to have spread into it from the Tanais (Don) to the Danube, and to 
have then taken a westerly direction ; but their kindred colonies in Thrace 
had extended also to the south. They have been better known to us, in 
recent periods, under the name of Getse and Goths, the most celebrated of 
their branches. 



BRITISH PHASE. 93 

As they spread over Europe, the Kimmerians and Keltic population 
retired towards the west and south. In the days of Caesar the most 
advanced tribes of the Scythian or Gothic race, were known to the 
Romans under the name of Germans. They occupied all the continent 
but the Cimbric peninsula, and had reached and had even passed the 
Rhine. One of their divisions, the Belgse, had for some time estab- 
lished themselves in Flanders and a part of France ; and another body, 
under Ariovistus, were attempting a similar settlement near the centre 
of Gaul, which C«sar prevented. It is most probable that the Belgse 
in Britain were descendants of colonists or invaders from the Belgse in 
Flanders and Gaul. 

The Saxons were a German or Teutonic, that is, a Gothic or Scy- 
thian tribe; and of the various Scythian nations which have been re- 
corded, the Sakai or Sacae are the people from whom the descent of 
the Saxons may be inferred, with the least violation of probability." 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE SAC^. 

In fixing the geographical location, we answer our second question, 
From what eastern home did the Saxons migrate ? With ancient maps 
there is some discrepancy, as to the location of some small tracts near 
central Asia. On a map now before us, the Sacse are located in the 
ancient Sogdiana, in the western part of Chinese Tartary, east of the 
Caspian Sea, just beyond the boundary of the ancient Aria or Arya. 
Facts of history will probably fix on Arya as their home in central 
Asia. Sharon Turner has these remarks, " Sakai-suna, or the sons of the 
Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same sound as Saxon, seems 
a reasonable etymology of the word Saxon. The Sakai, who in Latin are 
called Sacse, were an important branch of the Scythian nation. They 
were so celebrated that the Persians called all the Scythians by the name 
of Sacee; and Pliny, who mentions this, remarks them among the most 
distinguished people of Scythia. Strabo places them eastward of the 
Caspian Sea, and states them to have made incursions on the Kimmerians 
and Treres, both far and near. They seized Bactriana, and the most fer- 
tile parts of Armenia, which, from them, derived the name Sakasina; they 
defeated Cyrus; and they reached the Cappadoes on the Euxine. This 
important fact of a part of Armenia having been named Sakasina, is men- 
tioned by Strabo in another place ; and seems to give a geographical local- 
ity to our primeval ancestors, and to account for the Persian words that 
occur in the Saxon language, as they must have come into Armenia from 
the northern regions of Asia. 

That some of the divisions of this people were really called, Saka-suna is 
obvious from Pliny ; for he says, that the Sakai, who settled in Armenia, were 
named Sacassani, which is but Saka-suna, spelt by a person unacquaint- 
ed with the meaning of the combined words. And the name Sacesena, 
which they gave to that part of Armenia they occupied, is nearly the same 
sound as Saxonia. If the Sakai, who reached Armenia, were called Sacas- 



94 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

san, they may have traversed Europe with the same appellation ; which 
being pronounced by the Romans from them, and then reduced to writing 
from their pronunciation, may have been spelt with the x instead of the 
ks, and thus Saxones would not be a greater variation from Sacassani or 
Saksuna, than we find between French, Francois, Franci, and their Greek 
name (ppaxyt- ; or between Spain, Espagne, and Hispania. 

There was a people called Saxoi, on the Euxine, according to Ste- 
phanas. We may consider these also, as a nation of the same parentage, 
who, in their wanderings of the Sakai, from Asia to the German Ocean, 
were left on the Euxine, as others had chosen to occupy Armenia. Odin, 
the great ancestor of the Saxon and Scandinavian chief-tains, is repre- 
sented to have migrated from a city, on the east of the Tanais (Don), 
called Asgard, and a country called Asaland, which imply the city and 
land of the Asse or Asians. The cause of this movement was the prog- 
ress of the Romans. Odin is stated to have moved first into Russia, and 
thence into Saxony. This is not improbable. The wars between the Ro- 
mans and Mithridates involved and shodk most of the barbaric nations 
in these parts, and may have excited the desire, and imposed the neces- 
sity of a westerly or European emigration." The Saxon Asiatic location 
being geographically fixed, and its time, the 8th century before Christ, 
we have an unbroken chain of Saxon history from the British island 
through Europe to that Asiatic locality. Here is a broken link — let us 
drive a stake through the last sound link and hunt for the broken link. 

GREAT CENTRE OF IMMIGRATION. 

It is very generally conceded, that, after the flood, the earth was 
settled by the three sons of Noah : Shem, Ham, and Japheth ; the first 
dwelling in Asia, the second in Africa, the third in Europe. This divi-' 
sion, is in part correct. It is true, however, that, at a very early period, 
they became mixed. 

For many centuries after the Deluge the colonies were confined to Asia 
and Africa. Peculiar circumstances caused emigration to enter Europe. 
History establishes the fact that Central Asia, or the region east and south 
of the Caspian sea was the chief emigration centre. 

That part of Asia gave birth to the Medes and Persians, who, under 
Cyrus the Great, overturned the Babylonian empire. The Macedonian 
and Roman empires had their origin in later emigrations. Still, they can 
be traced to parts not very distant from the migratory centre. Asiatic soil 
has ever been fruitful of great nationalities. Central Asia lies within the 
belt of empires. 

There is a unity of plan in peopling the earth after the flood. The 
distribution of Noah's descendants indicates the work and superintendence 
of an all-seeing and an omnipotent Actor. The mental powers of Shem, 
Ham, and Japheth, are accurately weighed, and their posterity through 
all generations carefully noted, and the earth is meted out accordingly. 

The idea is illustrated in Jacob and Esau, Ephraim and Manasseh. 



BRITISH PHASE. 95 

God sees the future, and selects and educates the material lor His purposes. 
The future kingdom of Messiah requires the existence of such a plan. 
The metalic image, and the stone, in the Divine mind, existed in the days 
of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. Yet the material had to be formed and 
adapted to the work. 

The earth, from its creation, was designed for one family, under the 
government of one Supreme Ruler. That order was broken up in the first 
Adam, but will be restored in the second. Every prophetic student should 
study history as well as the Bible with this unity of purpose in view — 
Messiah's people and reign. That people will be a selection from the 
human family : the Messiah will be their Ruler over all the earth. 

The reign will be over a righteous people, and in righteousness. Who 
can contemplate the gradual unfolding of this divine plan without the 
most profound emotions? The seed of the woman! Mark its checkered 
pathway through the national convulsions of sixty centuries. How many 
are its future trials, before it enters the repose of its endless Sabbath ! 

THE SAXONS TRACED FROM THEIR HOME IN SOUTHWESTERN ASIA, TO THEIR 
LOCATION IN CENTRAL ASIA. 

This history will form the first part of their broken historic chain. 
We purpose to trace this part of the chain to the broken link in Media, or 
in Central Asia. And then, (to keep up the figure) to weld the broken 
link. This accomplished, we shall have one unbroken historic chain of 
the Saxons (Anglo-Saxons) from Southwestern Asia to the British island 
— with a hook at each end of the chain. 

Before tracing this first part of the chain, it will be well to place be- 
fore the reader that part of the chain which we have already traced. This 
shall be done in as few words as a clear view of the subject will allow. 

On the British Island (90,000 sq. m.) is erected an empire of 60 colo- 
nies, with a population of 250,000,000, — 8,000,000 sq. m. That empire belts 
the globe; rules the ocean; is first in commerce ; first in war resources ; 
first in knowledge ; and first in missions. The ruling family of that 
mighty nation are the Saxons (Anglo-Saxons). We traced that family to 
their European home which they occupied more than one thousand years, 
till their territory was too straight for them, when they conquered their 
present island home in Great Britain. 

We learned from their history that they were not aborigenes of Europe, 
but that, about the 7th century before Christ (some place it as early as the 
8th century), they came, in the second or Scythian, Gothic, or German 
(modern name, meaning north men) emigration from a region east and 
south of the Caspian sea; thus establishing their Asiatic origin. In that 
location B. C. 700, we find them, not the aborigines of that country, but 
strangers, foreigners, from some other Asiatic home. Here we found our 
broken link. We drove a stake through the last perfect link, and began 
our search for the remaining part of the chain, that, of the two parts, we 
might form one perfect chain. It is established then, that the Saxons, the 



96 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ruling element in the British empire, came from Central Asia, through 
Europe to the British island ; that they were foreigners in Central Asia. 
Whence came they into Central Asia? Their nationality previous to their 
migration into Central Asia? This problem we now propose to solve. 
This accomplished, there will be no difficulty in welding the broken link, 
and perffcting the historic chain. Give us time and attention. 

To find the original Saxon home, we propose to begin with the call of 
Abraham (Abram) out of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia. His call was by 
Jehovah to a separate nationality. His name is changed from Abram 
(high father), to Abraham, the father of a great multitude : clearly mark- 
ing his future destiny. 

His anxiety for the speedy accomplishment of God's promise led Abra- 
ham into a family trouble. He becomes a father by his bond maid Hagar. 
Ishmael grows up to be a lad in possession of his father's affections, when 
a change takes place:— a great ethnological change is predicted. In an- 
swer to Abraham's prayer, *' 0, that Ishmael might live before thee," God 
said, "Sarah (mother of nations) thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; 
and thou shalt call his name Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with 
him for an everlasting covenant, (and) with his seed after him. And as 
for Ishmael, I have heard thee : behold, I have blessed him, and will make 
him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly : twelve princes shall he 
beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I estab- 
lish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee." 

After the birth of Isaac Abraham's tent had too many for domestic 
comfort. Sarah and Hagar fell out about their children. The weaning of 
Isaac was made the occasion for a great feast. Sarah's jealous, black eye 
caught Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, mocking somebody, Isaac 
perhaps. This was too much for Sarah, who runs (in hot blood) to Abra- 
ham saying, " Cast out this bond-woman and her son, for the son of this 
bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, (even) with Isaac." (There 
was a good deal of human nature in Sarah.) 

And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his 
son. And God said unto Abraham, " Let it not be grievous in thy sight 
because of the lad, and because of thy bond-woman ; in all that Sarah 
hath saith unto thee, hearken unto her voice : for in Isaac shall thy seed 
be called. And also of the son of the bond-woman will I make a great 
nation, because he (is) thy seed." 

Out of these grew a national antipathy that has flowed down through 
all ages to the present time. The hatred between the seeds of Isaac and 
Ishmael. Two religions, equally hostile, — the crescent and the cross — 
have, perhaps, the same origin. Ishmael was the first born of Abraham : 
why, then, not the heir? He was the son of Hagar, a bond-woman. And 
by law, the child was doomed to his mother's bondage. There was another 
reason for the preference of Isaac to Ishmael, the undeveloped traits of 
character of these Abraham's two sons, and their posterity. And here 
again we discover the foot-prints of the Divine Ruler. As if God had said, 
Isaac is the heir of my promise to Abraham, and to that end I bestow upon 



BRITISH PHASE. 97 

him the honor, and the name (in Isaac shall thy seed be called). He shall 
possess the characteristics necessary to carry out my purposes in the future 
ages. God had a purpose in the creation and control of the earth ; and, 
therefore adapts the means to His contemplated ends. With this divine- 
chart before us let us trace the history of Isaac, and through his chosen 
posterity the chain of the God-appointed seed. 

Isaac and Rebecca had each a favorite : they were twin brothers, Esau 
and Jacob. The father was partial to Esau, the mother to Jacob. Esau, 
being the older, had the birthright, He was by nature a "Bedawy" "son 
of the desert," free, and nomadic — a child of the desert. This wild son 
Isaac loved for his excellent venison. How many are governed by appetite 
rather than by the dictates of reason. 

Jacob was his mother's boy ; a lad designed by Jehovah for quite an- 
other sphere. Having by deception obtained his brother's birthright, he 
fled from Esau's anger, yet, in a dream, he soon learned that he was in the 
line of the chosen seed. In a wilderness, with a stone pillow, he slept. 
Heaven is opened, a ladder connects earth and heaven, "angels ascending 
and descending on it." Above the ladder stood the Elohim, saying, "I 
(am) the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : the land 
whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed 
shall be as the dust of the earth ; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, 
and to the east, and to the north, and to the south : and in thee and in thy 
seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I (am) with 
thee, and will keep thee in all (places) whither thou goest, and will bring 
thee again into this land : for I will not leave thee, until I have done (that) 
which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, 
and took the stone that he had put (for) his pillows, and set it up (for) a 
pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that 
place Beth-el (the house of God), but the name of that city (was called) 
Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, 
and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; 
then shall the Lord be my God ; and this stone which I have set (for) a 
pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely 
give the tenth to thee." Gen. xxviii. 11-22. God did thus sustain him as 
requested, therefore, that stone became God's house. On that stone Jacob 
was crowned, and became a link in that chain of Royal High Priests. 
What became of this stone — Jacob's coronation stone — God's house? 
Perhaps we may learn more of its history. Keep this in mind, that it is 
a coronation stone in the house of Jacob (Israel). About 21 years later, 
Jacob, wrestling with an angel, had his name changed to Israel (prince of 
God) ; for, as prince he had power with God and with men, and has pre- 
vailed. Gen. xxxii. 28. 

Jacob had his favorite son also — Joseph, — a pet child — about the only 

favorite not spoiled in the process. Joseph's dreams, and his fancy coat 

excited the envy and deadly hate of his brothers. By this hatred through 

God's management Joseph is placed over Egypt, and saves his father and 

7 



98 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

family through a protracted famine of seven years. This famine brought 
Israel with all his sons into Egypt. From the call of Abraham to their 
departure out of Egypt was 430 years. Ex. xii. 40, 41. Their real bondage 
was about 215 years. They came out of Egypt in families (12) and dwelt 
and marched in the wilderness in tribes; and in the following order: In 
front of the tabernacle, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manesseh. In the rear, 
Zebulun, Judah, and Issacher. On the right, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali. On 
the left, Simeon, Reuben, and Gad. They settled as tribes in the land of 
Palestine. 

INCREASE OF CERTAIN NATIONALITIES. 

The Maker of the ea.rth worked by a plan in its construction. Why 
not equally wise in adapting the human family in its various tribal dis- 
tributions? The metalic image (Dan. ii.) clearly establishes the proposi- 
tion. I. The image itself symbolizes four universal monarchies, under 
the control of distinct families: 1. The Babylonian family; 2. The 
Medes and Persians; 3. The Macedonian or Grecian family ; and 4. The 
Roman and the mixed, or Romano-German family. These, in their times, 
increased and filled the earth. Flourishing for a time, they began to 
decline; and when their missions were out, having accomplished God's 
purposes, they were removed to give place to a new and more active 
people. 

THE DECREASE OF OTHERS. 

The stone symbolized another nationality. This stone smote the 
image and reduced it to dust, which the wind carried away; the stone 
becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. The interpretation clearly 
establishes God's national dealings in the past, and His unity of purpose 
for the future; it teaches us this lesson: that Jehovah has always been 
the Ruler of the nations, and that He designs, out of material gathered 
from all nations, to construct an endless and universal monarchy, over 
which His Son shall rule as King of kings and Lord of lords. That 
people is called (Christ at their head) the "Seed of the woman." All 
other nationalities are the seed of the serpent. The serpent's seed must 
decrease and be exterminated ; while the seed of the woman, by its inher- 
ent vitality, shall fill the world. Revelation and history abundantly 
establish this central idea. Some would say that this is a natural result. 
True. But what is nature other than God's continued mode of action ? 
To bring about certain results, their causes must be under control. Speak- 
ing of the increase of that seed, God said to Abraham, it shall be as the 
" stars " and as the " dust." Isaiah says, " For unto us a child is born ; 
unto us a Son is given ; And the government shall be upon His shoulder; 
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the 
Father of the everlasting age, the Prince of peace. Of the increase of His 
government (the governed) and peace there shall be no end; upon the 
throne of David, and upon His kingdom to fix it, and to establish it with 
judgment and with justice, henceforth and forever: the zeal of Jehovah, 



BRITISH PHASE. 99 

God of hosts, will do this." Isa. ix. 5, 6. As God hath declared that a 
certain seed should be so increased as to fill the whole earth, other families 
must decay and cease. Where now are those dynasties that have occupied 
the thrones of the four universal empires? Buried— beneath the ruins of 
the dead past. They filled their missions and were removed into hades. 
A glance at history reveals points of great ethnological interest relative to 
the perpetuity of families and nationalities. A few statistics will fully 
illustrate the point in question. 

Mr. Axon, a man who has made the increase of population his princi- 
pal study, makes the following remark : " While the great European 
nations take from 120 to 555 years to double their population, the Anglo- 
Saxon — taking the mean of their whole race— doubles every 41 years with 
a lower death-rate than any other." The Hebrews have always been 
prolific. In the days of their Egyptian bondage the Hebrew women are 
compared with the Egyptian mothers. " The midwives said unto Pharoah, 
the Hebrew women (are) not as the Egyptian women ; for they (are) lively, 
and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God 
dealt well with the midwives : and the people multiplied and waxed very 
mighty." Ex. i. 19. 20. This fact will come up hereafter. 

HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES. 

The twelve tribes occupied the land of Palestine during the Theocracy, 
and as one nation they were governed by Saul, David and Solomon. Dur- 
ing the reign of Solomon the Hebrew commonwealth arrived at the sum- 
mit of its grandeur. The latter years of Solomon's reign were, however, 
exceedingly oppressive. To maintain the splendor of his court and the 
expenses of his seraglio, absorbed the wealth of the nation. When his 
son, Rehoboam, was about to assume the government, ten tribes, under 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, spake unto Rehoboam, saying : " Thy father 
made our yoke grevious : now therefore make thou the grevious service of 
thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will 
serve thee." The old men advised him to comply with their request : but 
the young men induced him to reply as follows : " My father made your 
yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke ; my father (also) chastised you 
with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king 
hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord, that He 
might perform His saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite, 
unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Israel answered, " What portion have 
we in David ? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse ; to your 
tents, Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel (ten tribes) 
departed unto their tents. So Israel rebelled against the house of David 
unto this day." 1 Kings xii. 

Under Jeroboam began the kingdom of Israel, or of the ten tribes, 
which continued in its distinctive form under 19 kings till B. C. 720-274 
years. The captivity of the ten tribes began 133 years before that of 
Judah. The Scripture of this captivity is as follows: "In the days of 



100 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Pekah, king of Israel, came Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and took Tjon, 
and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoch, and Kadesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, 
and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria." 
2 Kings XV. 29. " In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria (Shal- 
maneser) took Samaria (after a three year's siege), and carried Israel away 
into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor (by the river Hahor 
in Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes." 2 Kings xvii. 6. Habor is the 
same as Chebar. Eze. i. 1. — Calmet. 

Sargon (Isa. xx. 1) supposed by Rollin to be Sennacherib, but by 
Vitringa, (the more probable) to be Psalmaneser, father of the Sen- 
nacherib, has this about him, on an eastern Obelisk, " Sargon, king of As- 
syria, came up against the city of Samaria and against the tribes of Beth- 
Kymri, and carried captive into Assyria, 27,280 families." Such is the 
Scripture account of their captivity. 

Many questions relative to this captivity, demand attention. 1. Was 
the whole ten-tribed nation removed into captivity, or had some of the 
tribes in their families, long before found a western home ? The parts of 
the ten tribes then living in that land under a regal head, were wholly 
removed, and the land was peopled by other inhabitants. We have the 
following in 2 Kings xvii. 22-24, " For the children of Israel walked in all 
the sins of Jeroboam which he did ; they departed not from them ; until 
the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He said by all His servants 
and prophets (Deut. xvi. 21 ; Micah v. 14). So was Israel carried away 
out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria 
brought (men) from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from 
Hamath, and from Shepharvaim, and placed (them) in the cities of 
Samaria instead of the children of Israel ; and they possessed Samaria and 
dwelt in the cities thereof." 

It seems from what follows no Israelites were left, "And (so) it was at 
the beginning of their dwelling there, (that) they feared not the Lord 
(God claims the land) : therefore the Lord sent lions among them (beasts 
are under His control), which slew some of them. Wherefore they spoke 
to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed and 
placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the 
land: therefore He hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay 
them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then 
the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests 
whom ye brought from thence ; and let them go and dwell there, and let 
him teach them the manner of the God of the land. vss. 25, 26, 27. This 
was done. We conclude that the captivity was complete ; such is taught 
us by the prophets. We can use the expression — all Israel (ten tribes) in 
captivity. Such was not the fact relative to the captivity of Judah. 

2. What was the character of this ten-tribed kingdom ? Was it the 
kingdom ruled previously by Saul, David and Solomon ? This question 
involves matters of such vital interest that its solution shall be attempted 
at least. 

" He (Solomon) shall build a house for ni}^ name ; and he shall be my 



BRITISH PHASE. 101 

son, and I (will) be his father ; and I will establish the throne of his king- 
dom over Israel forever." 1 Chron. xxii. 10. "Wherefore the Lord said to 
Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, (going after other gods), and 
thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have com- 
manded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to 
thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy 
father's sake ; (but) I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I 
will not rend away all the kingdom ; (but) I will give one tribe to thy son 
for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have 
chosen." 1 Kings xi. 11-13. 

And he (Ahijah) said to Jeroboam, "Take the ten pieces (of the gar- 
ment) : for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the 
kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee ; (But 
he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, 
the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel :) Howbeit I will 
not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince 
all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose, because 
he kept my commandments and my statutes; But I will take the king- 
dom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee (Jeroboam), (even) 
ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe that David, my servant 
may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have 
chosen to put my name there. And I will take thee (Jeroboam), and thou 
shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shall be king over 
Israel. And it shall be if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command 
thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do (that is) right in my sight, to 
keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did ; that 
I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and 
will give Israel (not all Israel) unto thee. And I will for this afflict the 
seed of David, but not forever." We have under Saul, David and Solomon 
a twelve-tribed kingdom, or the kingdom of "All Israel;" under Jeroboam 
a ten-tribed kingdom ; and under Rehoboam a two-tribed kingdom. Which 
of the two kingdoms wears the sceptre of "All Israel?" We answer, neither. 
The monarchy of " all Israel " was rent and became tribal. Ten parts 
were then united under Jeroboam, called the kingdom of Israel (not " all 
Israel ") ; and two were united under Rehoboam and called the kingdom 
of Judah. The sceptre of "All Israel " was taken from the earth by God 
to be given to him whose right it is. That "All Israel " has never since 
existed; that the two houses will be united, is clearly taught in Ezekiel 
xxxvii., whole chapter. This chapter we shall have occasion to examine. 
In the mean time let the reader make himself familiar with the contents 
of that interesting chapter. 

"a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of thy people 

ISRAEL." 

Thus spoke the Holy Spirit by the mouth of the aged Simeon, with 
the child Jesus in his arms. 

No one should question his ability to use the terms "Gentile" and 



102 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

"Israel" correctly. Gentiles (nations) were all nations except the Hebrews. 
On this point there can be no controversy. Relative to the term Israel, we 
have examined and classified about 2400 passages with the following 
results: 1. The term was first applied to Jacob by an angel who wrestled 
with him all night. It means a prince of God, ruling with God (Heb. 
Sx-ity^ Gy. 'IffpariX). It has been in use from B. C. 1739 to A. D. 1883-3622 
years. Its signification should, by this time, be well understood, yet, the 
Christian world is divided as to its Scriptural import. To be satisfied, we 
have traced the term Israel through the Bible, and noted every variety of 
use. In so doing we are obliged to say that we have not found the popular 
expression "Spiritual Israel." We give the reader the concise results of 
our labors. 

Jacob is called Israel 42 times. Jacob goes by the name of this attri- 
bute. It will be readily seen that, as the term is applied to himself, to his 
sons and to their posterity, two classes would spring up, having the same 
name, viz. : true Israel, and nominal Israel, an "Israelite in deed," and an 
Israelite only in name; both classes being Hebrews. All the sons of Abra- 
ham fall out of the line of the great promise but Isaac. Of the sons of 
Isaac, Jacob is chosen, Esau rejected, yet as truly the son of Israel as Isaac. 
This course is followed till Christ appears. Of the attributes, more remote, 
are the following: Children is used not less than 513 times; applied to 
Jacob's sons and called such 45 times ; to Israel as a nation 780 times ; God 
of Israel 155 times ; all Israel 100 times, first to the twelve tribes and then 
to the ten tribes, during the existence of the two kingdoms; mountains of 
Israel 15 times; beauty of Israel once; kingdom of Israel 7 times; daugh- 
ter of Israel once; king of Israel 30 times; armies of Israel twice; host of 
Israel 5 times; coasts of Israel 7 times; governors of Israel 2 times; seed 
of Israel 4 times ; rock of Israel once; land 20 times ; chariot once ; thou- 
sands of Israel 8 times ; fountain once ; camp once ; shepherd of Israel 
once ; Holy One of Israel 25 times ; congregation of Israel 22 times ; house 
of Israel 90 times; men of Israel 40 times; tribes of Israel 45 times; throne 
of Israel 4 times ; princes of Israel 15 times ; chief of Israel once ; Judah 
and Israel are often used after the revolt. These are specimens of the 
Scripture use of Israel. It is very singular if " spiritual Israel " is a correct 
name for Gentile Christians, that the Holy Spirit never uses it. Gentile 
>ij, goij nation or a collective body of people, Hebrew nation excepted. 
We have, in like manner, investigated the meaning and Scripture use of 
the term Gentile, with the following results: g^o*— nations — Gentile is 
used 30 times in the Hebrew Testament. In all places there is one distinct 
idea: that all the people of the earth form two national classes, 1. The 
Hebrew family forming one class by itself; 2. All other families of the 
earth constituting the other class. This thought is so clearly defined, that, 
as to the term Gentile, there can be no mistake in its Old Testament use. 
It is defined with equal distinctness in the 104 passages where £0vo- (ethnos) 
is used in the New Testament. They all illustrate the idea taught by the 
language of Simeon, in Luke ii. 32. "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
the glory of Thy people Israel." Both terms are names of two distinct 



BRITISH PHASE. 103 

nationalities, and for that purpose the Spirit uses them. Since, then, the 
Holy Spirit does not speak of any ''Spiritual Gentile, nor of any Spiritual 
Israel," it is quite safe to say that there was none. "Thy people,'' being 
sufficiently distinct to designate "Israelites indeed." To call a converted 
Gentile a true "Israelite" annihilates national distinction designed by the 
use of the terms. Does conversion take ayvay any other distinct nationali- 
ties? Does it mix up English, French, German, Austrian, Turk or Russian? 
Let it be kept in mind that Israel became the name of a distinct nation- 
ality. 

HISTORY OF THE TEN-TRIBED KINGDOM CONTINUED. 

It is well to note our progress in tracing this eastern part of our historic 
chain. We began with Abram in Chaldea, his paternal home ; heard him 
called to be the parent of another people, and give birth to a family of 
nations. The promise is first made to Abraham's seed (Christ), then Abra- 
ham, by faith, is named in the deed. Unto thee and to thy seed. Then 
Isaac is named and Ishmael rejected. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." 
Then Jacob is chosen and Esau rejected. We have followed the history of 
Jacob (Israel) through his sojourn in Egypt; noticed that severe captivity; 
and traced their course out of Egyptian bondage; through the Red Sea to 
the land of Canaan. Followed them through their tribal settlement; 
traced their history through the twelve-tribed kingdom of Saul, David and 
Solomon ; noticed the rebellion and the rending of the kingdom under 
Rehoboam, Solomon's son. We then started the inquiry whether the 
sceptre of the kingdom promised to David followed the ten-tribed kingdom 
or the two-tribed kingdom ? or whether the sceptre was removed till the 
future union under Christ? These questions are not readily answered, since 
expositors do not take the same view of this complicated problem. 

One class of interpreters say that the kingdom and the promises fol- 
lowed the kingdom of Israel, while others contend that the sceptre of 
David continued with Judah till Messiah first appeared on the earth. 
These expositors quote Gen. xlix. 10 in proof of their position : " The 
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between, his feet, 
until Shiloh come : and unto him (shall) the gathering of the people be." 
The meaning of this passage, says Hengstenberg, " Depends upon the 
meaning we give to the word Shiloh." It is objected, that Shiloh (used 
20 times) is always the name of a town, and never the name of a person ; 
and therefore cannot mean Messiah. Some of the interpretations and 
readings are as follows : 1) " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor 
the ruler's staff from between his feet, till he shall go to Shiloh," 1 Sam. iv. 
12; which means that Judah should have the primacy in war till the 
Promised Land was conquered and the Ark of the Covenant was solemnly 
deposited at Shiloh. 2) Judah shall lead the tribes till they shall find rest 
in Palestine. 3) "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah. . . . till rest 
come, and the nations obey him." 4) "One having the principality shall 
not be taken from the house of Judah, nor a scribe from his children's 



104 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

children until Messiah come, whose the kingdom is." 5) " Kings shall not 
fall from the house of Judah, nor skilful doctors of the law from their 
children's children, till the time when the King's Messiah shall come." 6) 
"The sceptre shall not fall from Judah nor an expounder from between his 
feet, till He comes, whose the sceptre is." 7) " The sceptre shall not be 
taken away from Judah nor a law-giver from under his rule, until He (the 
Pacific) shall come whose it is." 8) Until He comes whose is the domin- 
ion." This interpretation comes from Eze. xxi. 27. " I will overturn, 
overturn, overturn it : and it shall be no (more) until He come whose right 
it is, and I will give it (Him)." " He whose is the dominion," is a para- 
phrase of Shiloh regarded as a name of the Messiah. 9) '' Others have in- 
terpreted Shiloh as a kind of proper name of the Messiah derived from the 
verb nW; h® rested, was quiet, P. N., xh\a^ Shailah, peace, prosperity." 
Hengstenberg, who calls it Pacificator, the Author of Peace, says, "This 
interpretation is liable to no objection, and has everything in its favor." 

The following is Hengstenberg's translation of Gen. xlix. 10, "The 
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the law-giver, commander, from 
between his feet, until the Peacemaker comes, and Him shall the nations 
obey." The following, says Hengstenberg, we believe to be its true mean- 
ing: "Judah shall not cease to exist as a tribe, nor lose its superiority 
until it shall be exalted to higher honor and glory through the great 
Redeemer who shall spring from it and whom not only the Jews but all 
the nations of the earth shall obey." 

"The kingdom of the Messiah, in the Old Testament, is not placed in 
opposition to the theocracy, but appears as a continuation of it. Com- 
pare 1 Sam. vii. 12, etc. As according to Isaiah ix. 6, the Prince of peace 
sits upon the throne of David, and prolongs the duration of David's king- 
dom forever; and Amos ix. 11, the fallen tabernacle of David is to be 
rebuilt by him, so here the Redeemer, who shall spring from Judah, 
appears as the Enlarger of His dominion, hitherto limited to a single 
people, over all nations." — Hengstenberg. 

We might give other views. 10. Some interpreters seem very posi- 
tive that Shiloh is only the name of a town in the tribe of Ephraim. It 
is doubtful if Shiloh, as a town, existed in the days of Jacob. We first 
meet with the name in Josh, xviii. 1. It was simply a station where the 
army rested, and where the ark rested, like the station at Gilgal. The 
Lord gave the people rest. 

Has this passage had any fulfilment? This question is answered in 
two ways by two classes of expositors. Those who hold to its Messianic 
character, believe that Judah did have a distinct existence till the over- 
throw of Jerusalem by Titus. That Judah held the royal city and the 
temple, while the ten tribes remained lost and unknown. Trace the tribe 
of Judah from Egypt through the wilderness to the Hebrew conquest of 
Palestine. View that tribe under the judges; during the reign of Saul, of 
David, and of Solomon. Then after the division of the twelve tribes, 
during the existence of the ten-tribed and of the two-tribed kingdoms; 
during the 133 years transpiring between the captivity of Israel and 



BRITISH PHASE. 105 

Judah ; during the 70 years captivity in Babylon; under the Gentile mon- 
arcliies to the birth of the Messiah. There is a remarkable contrast 
between the history of the two people, Judah and Israel of that space 
of time. 

2, The other view, or the non-Messianic view of Gen. xlix. 10, is very 
zealously defended by W. H. Pool, an able expositor of Anglo-Israel. We 
cannot express his views better than by using his own language : 

"The usual interpretation given to this passage (Gen. xlix. 10) is that 
'Shiloh' means Christ, and that Judah was to hold the sceptre of domin- 
ion, or Empire until Christ came. But who does not see the inconsistency 
and unreliability of such an interpretation. The word 'Shiloh' is twenty 
times given in the Holy Scriptures, and in every case (petitio principii— 
J. P. W.) it means a place, and not once does it mean a person. 'The 
children of Israel came to Shiloh.' 'Came to Joshua to Shiloh.' 'Cast 
lots for them in Shiloh.' 'Spake to them at Shiloh.' 'The house of God 
was at Shiloh.' 'The Lord appeared in Shiloh.' 'Make this house as 
Shiloh.' And many more of the same import. Then, who is it that has 
read history, that does not know that Judah, or the Jews, never had the 
sceptre of dominion for one day, since the days of Zedekiah, no not for an 
hour. When the sacred vessels of the holy temple were taken to Babylon, 
the cup of Chaldean iniquity was nearly full, and that great Empire came 
to its death in a ball room. They were weighed in the balance and were 
found wanting. The Persian kings, to the number of fourteen, swayed 
their sceptre over all those lands in the East. Then came Alexander the 
Great, and after him the Syrian conquerors, next ten or eleven (xiii. W.) 
of the Ptolemys, who all held the country tributary to them. The Macca- 
bean or Asmonean family, nine of them, claimed the kingly authority, 
but they were not ofJudah or Jews; then the country fell into the hands 
of Pompey and the twelve Csesars; and when Christ came, Herod, who 
was an Edomite, a creature of Rome, held nominal sway over the land, 
and the people of the Jews. Here were thirty-eight creatures of foreign 
birth and alien blood, who usurped authority and claimed to govern the 
land. Surely that system of things could never have been the true mean- 
ing of the venerable Jacob when he called his sons to him to hear what 
would come to pass in the latter days. The true meaning of the passage 
is, 'The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till rest comes,' or, 'Till he 
comes to rest.' The sceptre of Judah remained in the house of David; 
and in the family of David it was transferred from the East to the 'Isles 
of the West.' Where it will remain until the time of the peaceful union 
of the two houses so long divided, that is the rest promised in the latter 
days." Thus speaks Pool. 

IS THE MYSTIC BABYLON OF THE APOCALYPSE AN ASIATIC OR A 
EUROPEAN. CITY ? 

The literal Babylon was Asiatic. So is the literal Euphrates. But 
the mystic Babylon is Universally conceded to.be European in its location. 



106 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Its scenery is by no means Asiatic. In one vision Babylon is situated 
upon many waters — Rev. xvii. 1, and in verse 9 she is said to sit upon 
seven mountains. That verse should read : The seven heads are seven 
mountains where the woman sitteth upon them (the waters). Mystic 
Babylon was situated on waters, surrounding seven mountains — mountain 
islands in the bosom of a sea or great river. Such is not the scenery of 
ancient Babylon. But it is the scenery of the Tiberian Rome, the seat of 
mystic Babylon. We answer, mystic Babylon is a European city. 2. Are 
the mystic waters of Rev. xvii. 1, 15, European or Asiatic ? If mystic 
Babylon is a European city, the waters upon which she sits must be Euro- 
pean also. They symbolize the nations which sustained the harlot, — mystic 
Babylon; but the Latin nations sustained the harlot; therefore the. mystic 
waters are European. There is nothing Asiatic about them, either in 
quality or location, 3. Where is " that great city " of Rev. xvii. 18, located? 
in Europe or in Asia? It is a literal cit}'-, since it is the interpretation of 
a symbol ("the woman"). No other than Rome, which at that time, by 
its mystic rider, ruled over the Latin kingdoms. Was not Rome situated 
on many waters? (Tiber). There is nothing Asiatic (strictly) about the 
vision. 4. Were these visions of mystic Babylon Asiatic or European ? 
We say most emphatically European? Their scenery is principally 
European, city, mountains, and waters; all European. This position, we 
presume, will not be questioned. The harlot, the beast on which she sat, 
the waters, mountains. These have their location in Europe. Each vial 
has its special location : 1. The first upon the earth (mystic earth ?) were 
men mystic? covered with mystic sores? 2. "Upon the sea" (mystic 
sea?) and every mystic soul died of mystic blood. 3. Mystic rivers and 
mystic fountains of mystic waters. They shed mystic blood, and thou 
hast given them mystic blood to drink mystically. 4. On the mystic sun, 
and mystic men were mystically scorched with its mystic fire. And the 
mystic men mystically blasphemed, because of their mystic pains and 
mystic sores. 5. Fifth angel (mystic?) poured out his cup upon the 
mj'stic seat (?) of the mystic beast (correct) kingdom (mystic?) was full 
of mystic darkness. And they (the mystic men) gnawed their mystic 
tongues for mystic pain. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of 
their mystic pains and their mystic sores. 6. And the sixth metaphorical 
angel poured out metaphorically his metaphorical vial upon the great 
metaphorical river Euphrates; and the metaphorical water thereof was 
metaphorically dried up, that the metaphorical way of the metaphorical 
kings of the metaphorical east might be metaphorically prepared. Such 
an interpretation, on its hinges turning, "Grates harsh thunder." 

There is something wrong about it. The Apocalypse, it is true, has in 
i^ many symbols, but it is not all symbols. The explanation of a symbol 
must be literal, or there would be an endless symbolic series. This law 
should never be violated if we are seeking after correct interpretation. We 
should never call a word figurative unless the sense forces the departure. 
Let this be distinctly understood, that Papal Rome is the Apocalyptic 
Babylon. Why, then did John call it Babylon? Because it resembled 



BRITISH PHASE. 107 

Babylon ; and also for the reason, that, to have called it Rome, would have 
provoked bloody persecutions, since Rome was regarded and called, " the 
eternal city." Its being under the control of an apostate hierarchy does 
not destroy its literality. 

Let us, for a moment, glance at the angels with their vials and their 
mission work. 1. The angels are what they are called, literal messengers, 
since they symbolize themselves. They have in their hands vials or cups. 
The executive judgment work of each angel, is confined to a definite 
locality on the earth ; the first is confined to the land inhabited by the 
worshippers of the beast and his image (European) ; the second, to the sea; 
the third, to the rivers and fountains; the fourth, to the sun, as to scorch 
the wicked; the fifth, to the seat of the beast. These five vials are, in 
their effects, European — have nothing to do with the great East. But few 
will question this position .as to their location. Of these five vials and 
their work, the terms, "earth," "sea," "rivers and fountains," the "sun," 
and the " sea of the beast " are literal. The plagues act upon those 
physical objects, since the people, "men," "living soul," "saints" are dis- 
tinct. With these thoughts before the reader, let him follow the sixth 
angel. The command was, "go your ways." Where did this angel go? 
This we learn from the names of the objects stated in the description, 
"And the sixth angel poured out his vial (cup) upon the great river 
Euphrates; and the water thereof dried up, (for what purpose?) that the 
way of the kings of the east might be prepared." These eastern kings 
have no mission in Europe ; but they have a work in the land of Israel. 
This vial alone prepares the east for the universal plague of the seventh 
vial, which is poured into the air which all breathe. We are not aware 
that the " wrath " of God is a " metaphorical fluid ! " God has often shown 
His power over rivers, but we were not aware that His anger was a meta- 
phorical fluid. Habakkuk sa3^s, " Was the Lord displeased against the 
rivers? (metaphorical rivers?) (was) Thine anger agains't the rivers? (was) 
Thy wrath against the sea, that Thou didst ride upon Thy horses (and) 
Thy chariots of salvation? The scenes of Rev. xvi., and xvii., are very 
distinct in their localities. A person is called a Jew or a Turk, when he 
acts like a Jew or a Turk. Mystic agents act on literal territory. 

We repeat. If the Euphrates of Rev. xvi. 12 is symbolic, we have a 
symbol without any interpretation, which is a violation of symbolic laws. 
Rev. ix. 14 does not solve the difficulty ; for it must first be shown that it 
is in that passage a symbol. The four angels are active agents, the 
Euphrates is neutral. How can the same power be active and neutral at 
the same time? The one has a fixed location by nature, as an obstruction ; 
the other has been restrained by that obstruction. Each has an Asiatic 
locality; not European. Let the reader bear in mind; — 1. That the first 
five vials have in effect European locations. 2. If the sixth vial is not 
eastern, there is none to prepare the east for the terrible struggle under 
the seventh vial. 



108 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

THE TEN-TRIBED KINGDOM CONTINUED. 

It is admitted that the sceptre remained with Judah till the death of 
Solomon ; that in the revolt of the ten tribes the sceptre departed from 
Judah ; and consequently, the kingdom and the promises followed the ten 
tribes. This position is taken by Mr. Pool, and is thus expressed : — Of 
David it is said 2 Sam. vii. 16, "And thine (David's) house and thy king- 
dom shall be established for ever before thee : thy throne shall be estab- 
lished for ever." Of Solomon it was said, " He shall build an house for 
my name; and shall be my son, and I (will) be his father. And I will 
establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever." 1 Chron. xxii. 
10. " Then the Lord said to Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, 
and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have com- 
manded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to 
thy servant (.Jeroboam). Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for 
David thy father's sake: (but) I will rend it ©ut of the hand of thy son. 
Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom ; but will give one tribe to 
thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I 
have chosen." 1 Kings xi. 11, 12, 13. "And he said to Jeroboam, Take 
thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will 
rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to 
thee : But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it 
unto thee, (even) ten tribes." 

On these passages Mr. Pool thus remarks, " The ten-tribed nation, 
therefore, is the kingdom, and Judah lost all claim to the honors and re- 
wards of the kingdom now transferred to other hands. I need hardly say 
that this remarkable transfer of the kingdom, throne and dignity to the 
ten tribes, secured to them all those special promises and blessings that 
God had previously made to Abraham and to his seed." "The sceptre of 
Judah remained in the house of David ; and "in the family of David it was 
transferred from the East to the ' Isles of the West,' where it will remain 
until the time of the ' peaceful' union of the two houses so long divided, 
that is the *rest' promised in the latter days." Again he says, "Judah, or 
the Jews, never had the sceptre of dominion for one day, since the days of 
Zedekiah, no, not for an hour." Mr. Pool's account of Jeremiah we sub- 
join : — " The prophet Jeremiah was specially intrusted by the Lord with a 
royal commission to take the daughters of king Zedekiah in charge with 
the king's household. The king's son had been killed, and his own eyes 
put out. There was a small remnant left. By an act of disobedience, the 
royal household was taken away to Egypt, (Jer, xliii. 6), ' so they came 
into the land of Egypt,' but they were commanded to leave immediately. 
' For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt.' They were 
commanded to go to the north and west to Tarshish. Isa. Ixvi. 19: — 'And 
I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them 
■unto the nations, (to) Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, (to) 
Tubal and Javan, (to) the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, 
neither have seen my glory ; and they shall declare my glory among the 
Gentiles." We quote Mr. Pool, since he is a very able writer on Anglo- 



BRITISH PHASE. 109 

Israel ; having made that one of his principal topics of investigation for 
(it is said) forty years. 

Again, Mr. Pool says, " How long Jeremiah and the king's (Zedekiah's)' 
daughters, and Baruch and their attendants, or household, remained in 
Egypt, I don't know. It is certain they were there. How long they were 
in Spain (Tarshish), I don't know, there was a large colony of their people 
there, how long they remained there, we may not know, but we do know, 
that, just seven years after they left Mount Zion, we find them landing on 
the Irish coast. It is more than probable that some monument, or slab, 
or marble will be found to fill up this missing link of seven years." It 
would have been very satisfactory had Mr. Pool given us the source of 
such positive ''we do know." If that one point (Jeremiah's landing on 
the Irish coast just seven years after he, with Zedekiah's daughter and 
Baruch left Mount Zion) be an undisputed historic fact, it will not be any 
stretch of credulity to- admit the remaining part of the narration; viz.: 
1. The chronology of their royal landing, B. C. 580 or 581. 2. Their com- 
ing under the ship owners of Dan.. 3. The revolutions they made in 
Ireland. 4. Th-e coronation stone. 5. The college of the prophets. 
6. The marriage of the king of Ulster (B. C. 580) with Tephi, a daughter 
of Zedekiah. 7. The conversion and education of Ireland. 8. The 
establishment of the house of David over the ten tribes in the 'Isles of 
the West.' 

These subjects will come under review when examining the Jewish 
Phase of the Eastern Question. At present let us follow the developments 
of the British Phase. Two rival schools of prophetic interpretations have 
arisen out of two constructions of Jacob's last words to Judah — Gen. xlix. 
10 — "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him (shall) the gathering 
of the people (be)." 

1. One school holds the view, that David's kingdom, when rent, under 
Rehoboam, followed the sceptre of the ten-tribed kingdom and Jeroboam, 
and, consequently the Abrahamic promises ; (2) that, in the overthrow of 
Zedekiah, the sceptre of Judah, in the family of David, was transferred 
from the East to the Isles of the West, where it will remain till the union 
of Israel and Judah under the Messiah. 

2. The other school holds that the sceptre continued with Judah at 
Jerusalem till the first Advent of the Messiah ; that at the fall of Jerusa- 
lem by the Romans, Judah's tribal nationality was taken away and remains 
away till Messiah its great king, whose is the sceptre, returns and rules 
over united Israel and Judah. 

No two problems are more difficult of solution, or more interesting in 
in their elements of proof, and yet the results of the opposite conclusions 
are so vital, that too much investigation to arrive at the true interpreta- 
tion is not possible. Allowing these interpretations to rest for the present 
— let us follow the history of the ten-tribed kingdom of Israel through 
their separate existence, till they go into captivity. This will finish our 
historic chain to the broken link. This we simply outline. 



110 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

WHAT BECAME OP JEREMIAH AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM? 

This question can not be very readily answered. What aid do the 
Scriptures afford us? Jeremiah was, it seems, the prince of prophets. So 
wonderful a seer as Daniel was simply his pupil, since Daniel applied him- 
self attentively to the investigation of Jeremiah's predictions. 

Thus speaks Jehovah ; "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew 
thee ; and before thou camest forth from the womb I sanctified thee, (and) 
behold I cannot speak: for I (am) a child. But the Lord said unto me, 
Say not, I (am) a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and 
whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: 
for I (am) with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put 
forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, 
Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee 
over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and 
to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant." 

Such was the vastness of the power of Jeremiah's commission. That 
commission he fearlessly executed, and suffered the severe penalties of such 
fidelity. His messages against the Jews brought upon him the wrath of 
his own nation, who treated him with terrible severity. When Jerusalem 
fell, Jeremiah had his liberty. Nebuchadnezzar's charge concerning Jere- 
miah was, "Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm ; but do 
unto him even as he shall say unto thee." "They sent and took Jeremiah 
out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah, the son 
of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home; so he 
dwelt among the people." Jer. xxxix. 12. 15. 

The captain of the guard said to Jeremiah, "And now, behold, I loose 
thee this day from the chains which (were) upon thy hand. If it seem 
good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come ; and I will look well 
ijnto thee; but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, for- 
bear ; behold, all the land is before thee ; whither it seemeth good and con- 
venient for thee to go, thither go." Jer. xl. 4. Jeremiah's unbounded 
patriotism decided him to share the disgrace of his own country, and to 
remain there with its distressed poor. Gedaliah, the governor appointed 
by the Chaldeans, under whose charge were Jeremiah, Baruch and Zede- 
kiah's daughters slain by Ishmael, who carried away captive the residue of 
the people that (were) in Mizpah, (even) the king's daughters, and all the 
people, (Jeremiah and Baruch his scribe included), towards the country of 
the Ammonites. Johanan overthrew Ishmael, and, recovering the captives, 
fled towards Egypt, for fear of the Chaldeans. Since Ishmael had slain 
their governor, God, by the mouth of Jeremiah, promised the people pro- 
tection, provided they remained in Judea; warned them not to enter Egypt, 
at the same time telling them not to fear the Chaldeans. 

IN EGYPT. 

This message was rejected by Johanan, who took men and women and 
children, and the king's daughters, Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the 



BRITISH PHASE. Ill 

scribe, and came into the land of Egypt, to Tahpanhes. God again uttered 
a terrible threat, that Nebuchadnezzar should come against them at Tah- 
panhes, and that they should be again scattered, because they practiced 
Egyptian idolatry. The people there perished by the sword, famine and 
by pestilence. " Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return 
out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah." Jer. xliv. 29. God 
gave them a sign by which they knew their coming fate. (See vs. 29, 30). 
In the city of Tahpanhes the inspired record bids adieu to Jeremiah. 
If Jeremiah wrote Jer. lii. 31 (which is doubted), it would appear that he 
died in peace at an extreme old age. Christian tradition says that the 
Jews stoned him to death at Tahpanhes. An Alexandrian tradition says 
that Alexander the Great brought Jeremiah's bones to that city. Where 
he found them is not stated. The Jewish statement says that on the con- 
quest of Egypt by the Babylonian king, Jeremiah and Baruch escaped to 
Babylon or Judea and died there in peace. 

WAS HE IN SPAIN? 

still another tradition (for such we must call it till we find a term 
more appropriate) makes Jeremiah with Baruch and the king's daughters 
with their household, return to Mount Zion, then, in the trading ships of 
Dan, to Tarshish (Spain) taking with them the tables of the law, and the 
"Liah-fail," or coronation stone (Jacob's stone). "Which stone is now in 
Westminster Abbey,- upon which all the kings and queens of Great Britain 
for 2,300 years have been crowned. They brought the harp and other 
musical instruments and the grand old melodies, which to this day dissolve 
us into ecstacies." — Pool. 

DID HE VISIT lEELAND ? 

From Spain they passed over into Ireland where they landed just 
seven years after leaving Mount Zion. Tephi, Zedekiah's oldest daughter, 
married Echoid, king of Ulster, B. C. 580; when the royal household was 
transported from Zion to Tara (Ireland). "In Ireland, county Fermanagh, 
four miles below Enniskillen, there is a lake called Lough Erin. In this 
lake there is an Island, called Davenish, on which there is a round tower; 
connected with the tower is a very ancient cemetery. In that cemetery 
there are very ancient monuments, and in one corner of the cemetery there 
is a tomb hewn out of a solid rock. That tomb has from time immemorial 
been called 'Jeremiah's tomb.' A gentleman living in this city (Toronto) 
says, 'I have seen that tomb hundreds of times.'" — Pool. Such is a tradi- 
tionary account of Jeremiah's last days, and of his final resting place. The 
subject for the present must come to a close. 

TEN-TRIBED KINGDOM IN CAPTIVITY. 

We have now followed the two parts of broken historic chains. 1. We 
traced the Saxon chain from its hook securely fastened to the great centre 
of the British empire in the British Islands, through Europe, to its broken 



112 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

link in Central Asia, or to a region east and south of the Caspian Sea. 
We have ascertained from authentic history that the people called Saxons 
occupied that region about 700 years before Christ. 2. That they were not 
indigenous to that country, but recent immigrants from some other region, 
bringing with them their peculiar religious, domestic, and national 
thoughts. We then found another broken part of a historic chain hooked 
to a child of the Hebrew famil}^, first called Abram (high father), after- 
wards named Abraham (father of many nations) ; this hook we call the 
beginning of the chain. We examined this chain, link after link, Isaac, 
Jacob, and through .Jacob's life, who was called Israel; down through the 
captivity in Egypt; through the wilderness, into the land of Palestine, dur- 
ing the theocracy; through the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon to the 
rending of the kingdom ; then followed the ten-tribed kingdom, called 
Israel through the reigns of its nineteen kings (274 years), till the time of 
their captivity, by Tiglath-Pileser, completed by Shalmanezer. Followed 
the tribes of Israel (Beth-Kymri) 27,280 families into "Halah, Habor, 
Hara, and to Gozan, cities of the Medes," B. C. 720. 

The two broken chains have their broken link in the same territory, 
and at the same age of the world. Israel or the Beth-Kymri, and the 
Saxons were a foreign people in the same land at the same chronological 
era. Where did Israel finally go? Where did the Saxons originate? 
They went to the land at the same era, where and when we find the 
Saxons. Their chronological location denotes the chronological parts of 
the same historic chain. If the ten tribes or Beth-Kimri, (house of 
Kimri) and the Saxons are the same family, then they are the two parts of 
the same chain and the broken parts are one and the same link, and the 
union is complete. The ten tribes or the house of Israel disappeared to 
the world when and where the Saxons appeared to the world. The ten 
tribes entered the grave, out of which the Saxons came. History, sacred 
and profane establishes this position. It is difficult, therefore, to say that 
they are not the same people. 

We are now prepared to bring forward other proofs of their identity. 
The chain, now complete, does not depend on tradition. This we desire to 
impress upon the attention of the reader. Examine this chain as now 
united. Notice, if possible, any imperfect part, while we examine other 
points of interest in their identification. The testimony of the identity 
of Israel (ten tribes) with the Saxons that we are about to adduce is 
simply corroborative, and is, in part, traditional. Our historic chain Ave 
rely upon as our main testimony. That chain is historical and is an un- 
broken chain of the history of one family with two names, Israel, children 
of Isaac, by Jacob changed to Israel ; the other Saxon, from Isaac. The 
two names are from Isaac and his son Jacob. How true it is that " In 
Isaac shall thy seed be called; " the one name (Saxon), the modified name 
of Isaac himself; the other (Israel) through Jacob, his son, changed to 
Israel by an angel. The "New name" is the modified name of Isaac him- 
self, (Saxon). " In Isaac (Saxon — son of Isaac) shall thy seed be called." 

Here allow us to show the modifications of Isaac into Saxon. The 



BRITISH PHASE. 113 

following we take from Sharon Turner's (F. A. S., R. A. S. L., author of 
"The sacred history of the world,") "History of the Anglo-Saxons;" 
"The Saxons were a German or Teutonic, that 7 s, a Gothic or Scythian 
(wandering) tribe; and of the various Scythian n.iions which have been 
recorded, the Sakai, or Sacse, are the people from whom the descent of the 
Saxons may be inferred, with the least violation of probability. Sakai- 
suna, or the sons of the Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which is the 
same sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the word Saxon. 
The Sakai, who in Latin are called Sacse, were an important branch of the 
Scythian nation. They were so celebrated, that the Persians called all the 
Scythians by the name of Sacffi ; and Pliny, who mentions this, remarks 
them among the most distinguished people of Scythia. Strabo places 
them eastward of the Caspian, and states them to have made many incur- 
sions on the Kimmerians and Treres, both far and near. They seized 
Bactriana, and the most fertile part of Armenia, which from them, derived 
the name of Sakasina; they defeated Cyrus, and they reached the Cappa- 
doces on the Euxine. This important fact of a part of Armenia having 
been named Sakasina, is mentioned by Strabo in another place ; and seems 
to give a geographical locality to our primeval ancestors, and to account 
for the Persian words that occur in the Saxon language, as they must 
have come into Armenia from the northern regions of Persia. 

" That some of the divisions of this people were really called Saka- 
suna, is obvious from Pliny; for he sa^^s, that the Sakai, who settled in 
Armenia, were named Sacassani, which is but Saka-suna spelt by a person 
unacquainted with the meaning of combined words. And the name 
Sacasena, which they gave to that part of Armenia they occupied, is nearly 
the same sound as Saxonia. It is also important to remark that Ptolemy 
mentions a Scythian people, sprung from the Sakai, by the name of 
Saxones. If the Sakai, who reached Armenia, were called Sacassani, they 
may have traversed Europe with the same appellation ; which being pro- 
nounced by the Romans from them, and then reduced to writing from 
their pronunciation, may have been spelt with the x instead of the ks, 
and thus Saxones would not be a greater variation from Sacassani or Sak- 
suna, than we find between French, Francois, Franci, and their Greek 
name fpajyt phraggi ; or between Spain, Espagne and Hispania." Paul 
(Rom. ix. 7; Heb. xi. 18) quotes Gen. xxi. 12, "In Isaac shall thy seed be 
called." Dr. W. Holt Yates says, " Saxon is from ' sons of Isaac,' by 
dropping the prefix ' I ' and adding the affix ' ons.' " He gives Saac, Saak, 
Saax, Sach-sen, Saksen. In most of the eastern languages " sons of" is 
written "suna." Dr. Yates agrees with Sharon Turner. Israel is called by 
various names, "Hebrews," "Children of Abraham," "Sons of Jacob," 
"Children (sons) of Israel," finally "House (sons) of Isaac." Amos vii. 
16. It is written (Isa. Ixv. 15.) "The Lord God shall slay thee (Israel) 
and call His servants by another name." Some say "Christian." That 
was given first by the enemy. God's other name is " In (from or by the 
name of) Isaac shall thy seed be called." 



114 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

HAVE THE THRONE AND KINGDOM OF DAVID HAD A CONTINUOUS EXISTENCE? 

Have the throne and kingdom of David had a continuous existence 
from the time of his personal reign in Jerusalem, B. C. 1055-1015 to A. D. 
1883? If so, where, and under what name? Its continual existence is 
maintained by one school of expositors, and opposed by another. It is 
affirmed in these words, "That throne of David (Psa. Ixxxix. 32-37), and 
the kingdom of Israel must be in existence somewhere; and, moreover 
they must have had a continuous existence throughout all these centuries." 
As to the place where, and under what name, the same author (Pool) says, 
''The sceptre of Judah remained in the house of David; and in the family 
of David it was transferred from the East to the 'Isles of the West,' where 
it will remain until the time of the 'peaceful' (Gen. xlix. 10.) union of 
the two houses so long divided, that is the 'rest' (Gen. xlix. 10.) promised 
in the latter days." That transfer was made, according to the same ex- 
positor, through the daughter of the captive king Zedekiah, when Jerusa- 
lem was taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. That continuous king- 
dom has continued in the British Isles, till 1883, and known as the British 
empire, or "Anglo-Israel." While we fully believe in the British future 
mission, and have been at great pains to trace the ten tribes from South- 
western Asia, through Central Asia into Europe, and into the British Isles, 
we have been unfortunate in not being able to trace David's sceptre to the 
same locality. A rent kingdom is not David's kingdom, though it may 
consist of ten parts. David had twelve tribes, so will his son Messiah. The 
union of the two sticks will make one nation. Ezek. xxxvii. 15-28. That 
union is still future. We can see an intimate relationship between Genesis 
xlix. 10, and Ezekiel xxi. 25. "And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, 
(not of the ten tribes, for they had been in captivity since B. C. 720, one 
hundred and twenty-nine years previous) whose day is come, when iniquity 
(shall have) an end, vs. 26; thus saith the Lord God; remove the diadem 
and take off the crown; this shall not (be) the same; exalt (him that) is low, 
and abase (him that is) high. Vs. 27, 1 will overturn, overturn, overturn it; 
and it shall be no (more), until He comes, whose right it is ; and I will give 
it Him." Who, then, took the sceptre ? God, who keeps it till Messiah is 
ready to receive it. Dan. vii. 13, 14. The sceptre is not, therefore, per- 
petuated in the family of Zedekiah through his daughter, who is said to 
have married an Irish king. If the transfer to the " Isles of the West," 
was by the daughter of king Zedekiah, it did not follow the ten tribes at 
the rending of the kingdom of Rehoboam. The captivity of the ten tribes 
put an end to the ten-tribed kingdom of Israel, since they did not return, 
nor does the prediction intimate that they would have a continuous regal 
existence. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a 
king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, 
and without an ephod, and (without) teraphim : and afterward shall the 
children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their 
king : and shall fear the Lord and His Goodness in the latter days." Hos. 



BRITISH PHASE. 115 

iii. 4, 5. The Targum reads, "And they shall obey the Messiah, the Son of 
David, their king." This is evidently a prediction of their conversion. 
Such language teaches that Israel would long be wanderers, without any 
settled government or visible means of communication with the Deity. 
Some time after these years of political and religious destitution a great 
national change would result in their conversion. Such would seem to be 
its true interpretation. The sceptre of Messiah, David's Son and Heir, is 
retained by God till the time comes for the Nobleman (Christ) to receive 
the kingdom and return to reign. 

A continuous existence of the throne and kingdom of David is not 
taught in Psa. Ixxxix. 32-37, as we understand the language of this psalm; 
also Jer. xxxi. 35, xxxii. 33; 2 Chron. xiii. 4, also xxi. 7: Also, in all the 
repetitions of God's oath to David, to convey this one definite thought, 
that He would not exterminate his (David's) house, as He had the house 
of Saul, but, that the time would never come in the endless revolutions of 
ages, when it could be said, David's family is extinct. The idea is fully 
expressed in Psa. Ixxxis, 30-37. "If his children forsake my law, and 
walk not in my judgments. If they break my statutes, and keep not my 
commandments ; then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and 
their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not 
utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fall. My covenant 
will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once 
have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed 
(Christ) shall endure forever, and His throne as the sun before me. It 
shall be established for ever as the moon, and (a) as a faithful witness in 
heaven." 

ANGLO -ISRAEL. 

We do not use this compound, because we endorse all that many 
writers say, but, simply, to express the thought by a single term. We 
may believe that the Saxons are of the ten tribes without holding that 
they constitute the whole of the ten tribes; or that the ten-tribed kingdom 
of Israel is the British empire governed by one of the house of David. 

The chain of Saxon-lineage has been traced from Abram in South- 
western Asia, link by link to the British Isles. They reached Central Asia 
in families. They had heads to their families who became subordinate 
rulers under one chief; or, sometimes under many chiefs. They first 
appeared in Europe as families. In northwestern Europe, they first 
appeared as families, then, as tribes ; then, as a confederacy for nearly one 
thousand years. They passed over into the British Island in a small band 
under Hengist and Horsa, A. D. 449. Sharon Turner thus describes the 
times of their invasion : " Hitherto England had been inhabited by 
branches of the Kimmerian and Keltic races, apparently visited by the 
Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and afterwards occupied by the Roman 
military and colonists. 

From this successive population it had obtained all the benefits which 



116 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

each could impart. But in the fifth century, the period had arrived when ^ 
both England and the south of Europe were to be possessed and com- 
manded by a new description of people, who had been gradually amid the 
wars and vicissitudes of the Germanic continent ; and to be as to man- 
ners, laws, and institutions peculiarly their own, and adapted, as the great 
results have shown, to produce national and social improvements, superior 
to those which either Greece or Rome had attained. 

The Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain must therefore not be contem- 
plated as a barbarization of the country. Our Saxon ancestors brought 
with them a superior domestic and moral character, and the rudiments of 
new political, juridical, and intellectual blessing. An interval of slaughter 
and desolation unavoidably occurred before they established their new 
systems in the island. But when they had completed their conquest, they 
laid the foundations of that national constitution, of that internal polity, 
of those peculiar customs, of that female modesty, and of that vigor and 
direction of mind, to which Great Britain owes the social progress which 
it has eminently acquired. Some parts of the civilization which they 
found in the island assisted to produce this great result. Their desolations 
removed much of the moral degeneracy we have before alluded to." 

Great Britain was ruled by the Romans four ceiituries. From their 
departure till the Saxon conquest. The various petty sovereignties which 
arose, were constantly contending for the supremacy. When Hengist and 
Horsa, two twin brothers, and descendants from Woden, came before the 
" king and British chiefs, they were holding a public council, on the best 
means to repel their Irish and Scottish enemies, and it was agreed to em- 
ploy these Saxon adventurers as subsidiary soldiers." These Irish and 
Picts were pirates, and, therefore, they often returned. More Saxons came, 
and the island was finally conquered by the Saxons. 

This is sufficient to show the time when, and the way in which the 
Saxons gained possession of the British islands, which they held for five 
hundred years till conquered by the Normans, another tribe of Germans. 
It will be seen that the Saxons belonged to the second, or Gothic, German, 
or Scythian emigration. They were behind the Kimmerian or the first 
emigration. But the Saxon element is the peculiar power of the British 
nation. It is formed of a combination of people of various other nation- 
alities. Still the Saxon was its bone and sinew. Without the Saxon 
blood we should never have heard of a British empire. The Saxon being 
the vital and active element of the British empire, has demanded special 
notice, which we have given it. We have been particular in tracing their 
Asiatic origin ; giving Sharon Turner as our authority, whose authority 
on the origin and history of the Saxons is undisputed. We have been at 
great pains to obtain a copy of "Anglo-Saxon History," and esteem it very 
highly. When we quote Sharon Turner, his history lies open before us. 
We thus speak, because we see some persons ascribing to him what he 
does not say. 

The direct testimony on which we rely to prove the origin of the 
Anglo-Saxon, or British nation, is the historic chain following that people 



BRITISH PHASE. 117 

from Abraham to the establishment of that empire in the British Islands. 
What we shall hereafter adduce, will be collateral testimony, designed to 
strengthen the primary chain, as strands twining about it. 

Corroberative evidence, 1. From B. C. 1200 to B. C. 720=480 years, 
the Hebrews had commercial intercourse with Spain, and the British Isles. 
Aside from any direct historical proof, the proposition is reasonable. It is 
not probable that an active, enterprising people, as the children of Israel 
had shown themselves to be, among the Canaanites, in their aggressive, ex- 
terminating wars; and with such an extended sea-coast, would confine them- 
selves to their own narrow tribal limits. Such is not the disposition of man. 
He is constantly pushing his researches into the unseen. Something new, 
just out of sight charms him, and he moves onward into the unknown. 
Other countries were to the Hebrews what Central Africa and the poles are 
to modern explorers. The land of Goshen was not out of traditional 
memory. That bondage was hard, but the living was good. They soon 
became quite intimate with the Phoenicians, inhabiting a district on the 
sea-coast north of Palestine, whose principal cities were Tyre and Sidon. 
The Phoenicians were the great maritime and commercial people of the 
ancient world, originally Canaanites. With these ancient sea-kings, the 
Jewish tribes that dwelt by the sea, associated with that people, Palestine 
being the granary of Phoenicia. The Phoenicians founded Carthage, traded 
in Spain and in the British Isles, when David conquerered Edom. The 
command of Ezion-geber, opened to the Jews the navigation of the Red 
Sea. In the days of Solomon the Hebrews became, by the aid of the 
Phoenicians, a maritime nation. But in the days of Deborah, the tribe of 
Dan had vessels in the Great Sea. This we learn from her song B.C. 1285. 
''And why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the seashore, 
and abode in his breaches (creeks)." Judg. v. 17. Dan was not in the 
battle ; neither was Asher, since their commercial relationships with the 
enemy kept them neutral. Under the reign of Solomon every country was 
tributary to his boundless researches for the wealth and productions of 
every clime, were transported to Jerusalem. 

IS JESUS OF NAZARETH THE LEGAL HEIR TO DAVID's THRONE. 

Why propose such a question ? Who calls it in question ? We reply. 
A theory may be such as to render Jesus' title rather doubtful. The Jewish 
nation, at Christ's first Advent, decided against His claim. If we cannot 
establish his genealogical title and admit that the seed-line to David's 
throne, was, at that very time, occupied legally, in the Isles of the West, 
was not Jesus of Nazareth an imposter as the Jews claimed ? how could he 
fill a throne that is legally occupied ? He claimed to be, when here, the 
legal heir to David's throne. If it was then legally filled, somewhere else, 
where is the validity of His claim ? It is a matter of serious doubt whether 
David's throne can be legally filled in any other place than in Jerusalem. 
Hear Jehovah speak when He is about to rend the kingdom, " Notwith- 
standing in thy days I will not do it (rend the kingdom) for David thy 



118 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

father's sake: (but) I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit 
I will not rend away all the kingdom; (but) will give one tribe (Benjamin) 
to thy son (who was of Judah) for David my servant's sake, and for Jeru- 
salem's sake which I have chosen," 1 Kings xi. 12, 13, (see Deut. xiii, 11). 
Ten tribes were to be rent from the twelve tribes. Two tribes and the city, 
its temple and worship still continued. That kingdom still held the line 
of the seed, and, consequently, the sceptre. For, why should God say, 
" For David thy father's sake," " and for Jerusalem's sake," if He did not 
mean this. I have promised to David, " Thy seed shall endure forever, 
and thy throne as the sun before me." Psa. Ixxxix. 36. Now, lest that 
oath should seem to fail, I will still continue two tribes, the city, and the 
temple my house. 

It is said, " That the throne of David and the kingdom of Israel must 
be in existence somewhere; and, moreover, they must have had a con- 
tinuous existence throughout all these centuries." " Who is it that has 
read history that does not know that Judah, or the Jews, never had the 
sceptre of dominion for one day, since the days of Zedekiah, no, not for 
an hour. — Pool. 

The transfer of David's throne from Mount Zion, to the British Isles, 
on the fall of Jerusalem, in the days of Zedekiah, is here distinctly taught. 
Hence, Jerusalem and the temple cease to contain David's line (royal) and 
his worship, as established under David and Solomon. If so, what become 
of the genealogies of Jesus of Nazareth as given by Matthew and Luke? 
Why does not the genealogy follow the house of David into the Western 
Isles?" — What reason can be given that Matthew and Luke should follow 
the line of Judah and Jerusalem, rather than in Ireland, Scotland and 
England? Why not trace the family of David in the British Isles, until 
it gives birth to the true heir, somewhere in the future, according to the 
expectation of the Jews. 

GENEALOGY OF MATTHEW. 

The first of the genealogy, after the captivity commenced, Matthew 
gives as follows : "And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias 
begat Zalathiel ; and Zalathiel begat Zorobabel (Zerubbabel, (born at 
Babel). Of Zerubbabel Dr. Wm. Smith in his Dictionary of the Bible, 
says, " The head of the tribe of Judah at the time of the return from the 
Babylonish captivity in the first year of Cyrus. He was appointed by the 
Persian king to the ofiice of governor of Judsea . . . Zerubbabel was 
the legal successor and heir of Jechoniah's royal estate, the grandson of 
Neri, and the lineal descendant of Nathan the son of David." Matthew 
traces the house of David into Babylon, and out of Babylon to Jerusalem, 
after the captivity, instead of tracing it to tjae British Isles. Matthew's 
genealogy, after Zerubbabel, has the following order: Abind, Eliakim, 
Azor, Sadoc, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, the husband 
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the genera- 
tions from Abraham to David (are) fourteen generations : and from David 



BRITISH PHASE. 119 

until the carrying away into Babylon (are) fourteen generations : and from 
the carrying away into Babylon until Christ (are) fourteen generations." 
The line comes down through Rehoboam the son of Solomon. 

When Christ rode into Jerusalem, " The multitudes that went before, 
and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; 
Blessed (is) He that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the 
highest." Matt. xxi. 9. The two blind men said, " Have mercy on us, 
O Lord (thou) Son of David." Matt. xx. 30. Paul says of Jesus, the Christ, 
" Declared (to be) the Son of God with power, according to Spirit of holi- 
ness, by His resurrection from the dead." Rom. i. 4. An unbroken 
genealogy from David to Christ is traced from Palestine to Babylon to 
Jerusalem and continues there till Christ, the heir to David's throne, is 
born. There the genealogy ceases because its design is accomplished. 
Another genealogy would make David's throne occupied by one of his sons 
in the West at the very time that these multitudes were crying, Hosanna 
in Jerusalem. The words of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 10, we think, establish the 
same genealogical chain. Previously this prediction has been somewhat 
fully considered. Some other supplementary thoughts will now be con- 
sidered. 

" Sceptre," " Lawgiver," " Shiloh," are terms that may be still further 
explained, sceptre and lawgiver, mean short staff, tribal (1 Sam. x. 19, 20), 
and long staff", or judge's staff. The idea is this, Judah shall have a tribal 
and judicial existence till Shiloh come : there shall be princes and gover- 
nors in Judah till Shiloh comes, and unto him shall be the gathering of 
the people. The other tribes shall be lost, but Judah (Jews) shall continue 
in some organized form till Shiloh comes. These verses (vs. 10, 11) contain 
divine predictions which have been accomplished, or will be in the future. 
This is readily admitted. Yet the true import of the word " Shiloh " is 
differently understood. It is said that Shiloh means " rest." Shiloh is 
used twenty times in the Bible, yet it is first used by Jacob in Gen. xlix. 
Suppose that in every other passage it means a " resting place," or town, 
does that decide its first meaning ? what God intended by this word is not 
stated. All proper names have some original meaning : more particularly 
those found in the Bible; but does this fact do away with their personality, 
or local identity ? Jacob's two names did not do away with his personal 
identity. Admit that the term Shiloh was localized, does that prove that 
the word, where first used, is not the name of a person, given him because 
of some distinctive characteristic ? Jacob's (supplanter) name is changed 
to Israel (prince of God) should there be a thousand of persons, tribes, 
places and things called Israel, the original import would remain the same. 
*' Shiloh come," implies an agent. So does the expression, "And unto 
Him (shall) the gathering of the people (be)." The same may be said of 
vs. 11, " Binding his (Shiloh's and Judah's) foal unto the vine, and his ass's 
colt (Matt. xxi. 2) unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine; 
and his clothes in the blood of grapes." Such expressions will suit an 
agent but not a town nor a quality. We do not speak of a town's coming, 
nor binding his foal to a vine ; nor washing its garments, etc. It is true, 



120 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

towns and cities are personified, but no person will presume thus to inter- 
pret these verses. 

The objection to the common interpretation seems to be founded on a 
certain historic mistake; viz., that Judah's sceptre of dominion ceased with 
Zedekiah. We affirm that Judah had his tribal existence, and his judicial 
power though in a state reduced from that of its former condition, from 
the Babylonish captivity to the close of the genealogies of Matthew and 
Luke, for fourteen generations, when Jesus of Nazareth was born : that 
Ezek. xxi. 25, 26, 27, is a clear exposition of Gen. vlix. 10, 11 (sec.) A few 
thoughts relative what lilzekiel says will explain Judah's position till 
Christ appeared. 1. It was necessary that there be an unbroken genealogy 
of the house of David till Christ should come, in order to prove His right to 
David's throne. The propriety of this position will be seen. 2. Judah's 
position during these fourteen generations is one of chastisement; yet it 
does not violate his God's oath to David. God has to chastise His people, 
as a parent his children. 

Yet, with all God's chastisement of Judah, the following is true. " The 
tribe of Judah shall not cease to exist as a people, and have a government 
of its own until the Redeemer shall appear." On this point Calvin thus 
speaks. Si quis excipiat aliter sonare verba Jacob, solutio in promtu est quid-quid 
unquam deus de externa ecclessise statu promisit, itafuisse restringendum, ut judi- 
cia sua interim exerceret puniendis hominum peccatis fidemque suorum probaret /' 
which, if liberally construed is as follows : — If any one is disposed to put 
another meaning on Jacob's words, this reply is at hand, his language is 
so to be restricted, that whatever God has promised concerning the exter- 
nal condition of the Church in the meantime He claims the right of pun- 
ishment for their sins, and rewarding for their fidelity. 

"The temporary cessation of the national subsistence, therefore, as for 
example, during the Babylonial exile — granting that the tradition of the 
Jews, that they still existed as a people, and had governors of their own, 
during that period, is not to be believed — can as little disprove the truth 
of this prediction, as the period of unbelief and apostacy which is passing 
away destroys the truth of the promise which Christ gave to his New 
Testament church. If we take this into consideration, we shall see that 
history most strikingly confirms this part of the prediction; while the ten 
tribes have never had a national existence, since they were carried away 
into captivity, the tribe of Judah returned, and continued to subsist till 
the appearance of the Messiah, while the other tribes, with their institu- 
tions and privileges, had long before passed away. If any one is disposed, 
with many interpreters, to go further, for which however there is properly 
no sufficient reason, and find in this verse a prediction, not only of the 
continuance of the national self-subsistence of the tribe of Judah until the 
coming of the Shiloh, but also of its superiority over the other tribes, his- 
tory will supply him with the evidence of fulfilment. Even during the 
journey through the wilderness, and afterwards in the times of the Judges, 
this tribe maintained a certain pre-eminence ; with the elevation of the 
house of David it obtained the regal dominion. After the division of the 



BRITISH PHASE. 121 

kingdom, it had the advantage of possessing Jerusalem, the legal capital 
and the temple; after the return from the captivity, it gave the name to 
the whole nation ; and the high council was established within its limits, 
which decided in temporal and spiritual affairs. Even under the do- 
minion of the Romans it retained no inconsiderable power," — Hengstenherg. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF ISRAEL TOWARDS THE WEST, GREECE, ITALY, SPAIN, 
IRELAND, SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. 

A few supplementary thoughts will still more clearly confirm the 
existence of these early settlements. The propositions which we aim to 
establish are these : !» More than 1200 years before Christ, some of the 
tribes of Israel began to associate with the Phoenicians in their commerce 
on the Great Sea. This continued to extend to the west and northwest 
during five centuries before the captivity of the. ten tribes B. C. 720. 
During these five hundred years the Hebrews must have become quite 
familiar with all the countries along the coasts of the Mediteranean Sea as 
well as those of the Atlantic ocean west of Spain, and those surrounding 
Ireland, Scotland and England. 

2. With the view of mining, and carrying on various other occupations, 
such as agriculture and all others necessary to the manufacture of various 
articles and their preparation and shipment to their own land, and to 
various other parts. 

3. To do this there would be required a large resident population, 
villages and cities would spring up, and large colonies would be a legitimate 
result. These colonies would keep up a constant and familiar intercourse 
with their mother country, the land of Israel. Their condition would also 
be well known to those still residing in the parent land. There could be 
no other results. 

4. When, therefore, the ten tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians, 
and departed into Central Asia, the events must have been well known to 
these colonies, and a deep sympathy felt in their misfortunes. 

5. After residing some years in Media and Persia many would have a 
strong desire to visit their brethren in the west. To do this many compa- 
nies would be formed, and together start for the far west — the ancient 
California of exiled Israel. Such a company is described in 2 Esdras xiii. 
41-46, " Mankind," there being put for heathen. 

6. In reaching those colonies they would be pushed towards the north 
and west to pass around the Roman empire : for their numbers and con- 
dition were not such as to enable them to force their way through the 
empireo They were afterwards driven further north by the Huns; hence 
they were called by the Romans North-men, Garmen, Germans. Such 
would seem to be a true outline of their migrations and settlement in the 
West, and the reason for it. 

There is nothing unreasonable in these six propositions. Are they 
true? Tradition sustains them. History also, as far as we have any. 



122 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Neither does the Bible contradict them. Some believe that it fully cor- 
roborates history and tradition. 

Let us now examine into the drift of their testimony. 

COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 

Very little is said about the early sea-going, and commerce of the 
Israelites. History has much to do with the Phoenician trade on the great 
waters, since, however, the people of Israel and the Phcenicians dwelt in 
the same quarter of the globe, and made use of the same language. Foreign 
historians, not knowing any distinction, would naturally call them by one 
name; and as Phoenicia was a name more familiar, they could give them 
the title of Phoenicians. When we read of the commerce of that people, 
we do not know what nationality is intended. Where, then, did the 
Phoenicians go in their ship? With the Red Sea, the Mediteranean Sea, 
and the Atlantic coast between Southwestern Spain and the Highlands of 
Scotland the Phoenicians were quite familiar. Dan's tribe-ship with about 
two-thirds of the other tribes, had his western border on the coast of the 
Great Sea. His proximity to Tyre and Sidon made his traffic with the 
Phoenicians very easy and lucrative. Learning the success of Dan, the 
enterprising of the maritime tribes associated their fortunes with his, and 
entered into the commercial business, and continued that occupation from 
about 1295 B. C. to 740 B. C. At that time the Assyrians were invading 
the kingdom of Israel. Some of the inhabitants escaped to Egypt by sea. 
Others fled to more northern and western countries. About 20 years after 
the captivity into Assyria took place — B. C. 720. During those 555 years 
the Hebrew trafiic was extending westward, and colonies were planted, and 
grew up under Hebrew laws, language, manners and customs. Dan seems 
to have been the leading tribe, since its name, in some form, is attached to 
so many places and objects. 

Before we follow these refugees of B. C. 740 to the western islands let us 
go with them into Egypt. Hosea says of those times Hos. ix. 3, 6, 
" Ephraim shall return to Egypt," " Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis 
shall bury them." Memphis is in the vicinity of the Pyramids. After 
the Assyrian captivity had commenced, the Israelites (refugees) gained 
great influence in Egypt and were honored in their burial. 

Their government was changed by the choice of twelve kings, (to 
represent the twelve tribes) ; among whom, says Herodotus, they divided 
the different districts of Egypt. Egypt was divided into twelve communes 
during the lifetime of these refugees, which were of the twelve tribes of 
Israel. These twelve kings built the celebrated labyrinth near lake Moeris, 
composed of twelve covered courts, six towards the north, and six toward 
the south; three thousand apartments, fifteen hundred underground and 
fifteen hundred above, of incredible grandeur and beauty; but now 
covered with sand. 

They did not there remain: "He shall not return into the land of 



BRITISH PHASE. 123 

Egypt." Hos. xi. 5. The Egyptian commonwealth being dissolved, 
Psammitacus, one of the twelve, obtained the supreme command; Ephraim 
then left Egypt for another home. 

Let us now follow the Hebrews westward under the lead of Dan in his 
ships, in the pursuit of the wealth of other lands extending their colonies 
towards the west. 

The Ionian Republic with its twelve states or tribes, resembling the 
Israelitish government, was formed under Israel's rule. It is said that the 
lonians have striking characteristics of Israel. They were personally 
handsome, and their situation charming. These Ionian islands were not 
in the far west; still they were far enough from the land of Israel to point 
out the direction of the colonization movements. 

Greece, during those 555 years, was also visited by the Israelites. Of 
this we have many proofs : 1. The Greek alphabet seems to have grown 
out of the Hebrew. From the Hebrew Aleph, we have the Greek Alpha; 
Heb. Beth, Gr. Beta; Heb. Gimel, Gr. Gamma, etc. These Israelitish 
teachers, coming from Phoenicia, would be called Phoenicians. The follow- 
ing testimony comes from high authority, a. " Of all the heroic families 
in Greece none was more heroic than that of the Dan-ans of Argos." — Dr. 
Wm. Smith, b. " The Dan-ans were a people of great learning and wealth ; 
they left Greece after a battle with the Assyrians, and went to Ireland and 
also to Danmark, and called it Dan-mares, Dan's country." — Keating^s His- 
tory of Ireland, c. " The Danans were a highly civilized people, well 
skilled in architecture and other arts from their long residence in Greece, 
and their intercourse with the Phoenicians. Their first appearance in Ire- 
land was 1200 B. C, 85 years after the great victory of Deborah." — Annals 
of Ireland. 

Humboldt thinks that the Greeks included the Hebrews in the term 
Phoenician, and holds that Ireland was, at an early day, Israelitish. 

The following is from Dr. Latham, the celebrated European Ethnologist. 
'' I think that the Eponymus of the Argive Danaia was no other than that 
of the Israelite tribe of Dan ; only we are so used to confine ourselves to the 
soil of Palestine in our considerations of the Israelites, that we treat them 
as if they were adscripti glebae and ignore the share they may have taken 
in the history of the world." This remark is very reasonable. It is by no 
means probable that a tribe so enterprising as that of Dan, when aided by 
maritime Israel, and the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, with all their 
merchant princes could have navigated the great seas during five and one- 
half centuries, visiting every port, and carrying on an extended commerce 
with the great northwest, without leaving his name and his colonies every 
where within the boundaries of his extended traffic. See what has been 
done in the United States since the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth 
Rock. 

Mr. Gladstone in his " Homer and the Homeric Age," remarks that the 
phrase Dan-oi occurs 147 times in the Iliad, and 13 times in the Odessy; 
that it never occurs in the singular; that Homer used it as a standing 
appellation as we use the word Cambrian for a Welshman, or Caledonian 



124 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

for a Scotchman, or Gael for a Highlander, or Son of Albion for an English- 
man. 

Passing westward along the Mediteranean Sea we find other Israelitish 
foot-prints. In the north-west part of Italy, there is another commonwealth 
of twelve states — lucumonin — Hebrew, root, the same as comte, county. 
Its ancient name was Tyrsenia, son of Tyre — a Tyrian colony: (Israelitish). 
It was afterwards called Etruria. Each tribe or division had its governor, 
with one king over all. These were formed by extensive emigrations from 
Israel, principally from the tribe of Asher, in whose tribal boundaries was 
Tyre. The Etruscans had two commonwealths of 12 states each ; one on 
the west side of the Appenines, the other on the east base, guarding both 
passes of the mountains. 

Their language was Hebrew, or Phoenician ; anciently believed in one 
God, whom they called Jave or Jove, Hebrew name of the God of Israel; 
believed in a future state. Prom the Etrurians the Romans received every 
thing valuable both in arts and arms. The Tarquins, the first kings of 
Rome, were Etruscans. 

" The high degree of civilization which the Etruscans had long before 
Rome was heard of, is testified by innumerable works of masonry and art. 
The Etruscans were of an eminently practical turn of mind, and domestic, 
like the North (Germans W). Trusting to their priests for reconciliation 
with gods, who always seem irate, but whose angry decrees could easily be 
foreseen and averted, they set to work in developing the inner resources of 
the country, and in making the best use of their intercourse with foreign 
countries. They thus became eminent in agriculture, navigation, military 
tactics, medicine, astronomy, and the like ; and in all these, as well as in 
some of the very minutiae of their dress and furniture, the Romans became 
their ready disciples and imitators. The division of the year into months 
(12) was made by the Etruscans." 

Who were the ancient Etruscans? They were evidently of the same 
race that produced the Germans. Some say they were Slavonic, others call 
Kelts (Celts), Semitics, Goths, Scandinavians, Basques, Assyrians, Egyptians, 
and Armenians. To call them Israelites of the 5J centuries before their 
final captivity, we think correct. God designed to leaven the world with 
these His ancient people. 

COLONIZATION PERIOD. 

We have already traced the Hebrew colonization and traflic, westward 
as far as Italy. Let us notice another channel of communication, that of 
the south, through the Red Sea. A fleet of merchant vessels was constructed 
by Solomon at Ezion-Geber, east gulf of the Red Sea. This fleet was com- 
posed of ships constructed of the pattern of the Phoenician vessels, used in 
their voyages to Tarshish, Spain. Hiram furnished the pattern and most 
of the men, while the vessels were built at the expense of Solomon. This 
fleet sailed on voyages of three years' duration ; visiting Indian, Arabian 
and African ports. Some authors hold that they sailed around Africa to 



BRITISH PHASE. 125 

Spain. Why could they not have sailed directly into the Mediteranean Sea 
through the ancient Suez canal? It may be said, that that canal was not 
so ancient. This is not known. 

These voyages made the Hebrews a commercial people, and their 
colonies grew up in every quarter of the globe. It cannot be supposed, 
that, in these times their European colonization and traffic were suspended. 
The maritime tribes, with Phoenician merchants, were still extending the 
boundaries of their commerce. We shall now speak of the Israelites in 
Spain. That Tarshish was in Spain, is so generally conceded, that but little 
is required on that point. Tarshish became at length to be the name of any 
port visited by ships of Tarshish, or by those constructed after that pattern. 
The articles which Tarshish is stated by the prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 12) to 
have supplied to Tyre are precisely as we know through classical writers to 
have been productions of the Spanish Peninsula. — Wm. Smith. Tin was 
in early times obtained from Tartessus, Spain, a small amount from Lu- 
sitania; but principally in Cornwall, England. The Phoenicians and 
Israelites visited and colonized part of Spain. That there were anciently 
Israelitish colonies in Spain, would appear from Paul's desire to visit Spain, 
those being descendants of the ancient colonies. It is reasonable, also, to 
suppose that Tarshish would carry its name still farther to the northwest. 
" To the isles of the Gentiles." 

On an ancient map of Ptolemy, England and Scotland are called Javan. 
In the Bible they are called " Isles of the West." Javan was the son of 
Japheth, who was given Europe. Tarshish and Kittim were sons of Javan, 
who settled on the western coasts of Europe, Spain, Portugal and France. 
Europe is called " Isles of the Gentiles." (Gen. x. v.), since it included 
all the surrounding islands of the seas and ocean. Including all the 
countries visited by the Hebrews in ships. Tarshish, proper, must there- 
fore have a European location. 

'' The ships of Tarshish " were Phoenician, of Hebrew vessels (prin- 
cipally of Dan* and Asher) that carried on commerce with those western 
countries, which afterward gave its name to the commercial fleets of Solo- 
mon at Ezion-Geber. Wherever they went they went by the name of 
" The ships of Tarshish." 

The following are from histories : " Tin and bright iron were brought 
into Gaul from the western isles, 620 years B. C." — Diodorus. 

"The whole of the Roman empire was supplied with metals and with 
tin from Britania. Also Greece as early as B. C. 907." — Pliny. 

" The Phoenicians took purple, scarlet, rich stuflPs, tapestry, costly fur- 
niture, and curious works of art to the west beyond the Straits of Hercules ; 
and brought back gold, silver, iron and tin." — Rollin. " Voyages to Corn- 
wall, England, for tin and iron, were of frequent occurrence, 620 B. C." — 
Von Humboldt and Lewis. " Xenophon, who wrote 100 years later than 
Ezekiel, describes one of those ships of Tarshish starting for Gades, now 
Cadez." " Some will inquire why having made so long a discourse of Lybia 
and Iberia, we have not spoken more fully of the outlet at the Pillars of 



126 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Hercules, nor of the interior sea, nor yet indeed of the Britanic Isles, and 
the working of tin, nor of the gold and silver mines of Iberia." — Polybius. 

" Beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) the ocean flows 
round the earth. In this ocean, however, there are two islands, and those 
are very large, and are called Britanic, Albion, and lerne, which are larger 
than those before named. They lie beyond the Keltic, and there are not a 
few small islands around the Britannic Isles and around Iberia." — Aristotle. 
^' I cannot speak with certainty nor am I acquainted with the islands called 
Cassisterides from which tin is brought to us." — Herodotus. An English 
historian says that the tin, named here by Herodotus, came from Cornwall, 
England. The country was known to the Phoenicians, w^ho traded for tin, 
which, when mixed with copper, was the ancient bronze. This "bright 
iron" was used in Solomon's temple. 

" The British tin mines mainly supplied the glorious adornment of 
Solomon's temple." — Sir Edward Creasy^s History of England. 

After the overthrow of the Persian empire God says to Israel, "Pass ye 
over to Tarshish. Pass through thy land as a river, daughter of Tarshish." 
Isa. xxiii. 6. (See Isa. Ixvi. 19). "Islands afar off,".(Yarish Islands). 

The Hebrew influence went along the southern coasts of the " Great 
Sea." It went to Carthage, RoUin says. The Carthaginians were indebted 
to the Tyrians, not only for their origin, but for their manners, language, 
customs, laws, religion, and their great application to commerce. They 
spoke the same language with the Tyrians, and these same with the 
Canaanites and Israelites, that is, the Hebrew tongue, or at least a language 
which was entirely derived from it. 

From the quotations given, no one will question the fact of the early 
Hebrew colonization and commercial enterprises. Nor is it a matter of any 
doubt, that they extended along the northern and southern coasts of the 
Mediterranean Sea, or the Atlantic coast with its immense clusters of 
islands about Ireland and England. That these countries were full of 
Israelitish colonies from B. C. 1200 to 720 B. C, that when, as in 2 Esdras 
xiii., they resolved to go to the far-ofl' west they were going to their own 
countrymen, where they would not be molested. From Media and Persia 
their route would be overland in the direction of the metallic image, through 
those countries of the four Gentile monarchies, which, as four horns, which 
have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, Zech. i. 19. ; in the line of the 
mounds of Asia Minor. Their trail is still seen along the zone of mounds 
and empires. 

The land, requiring a year and a half to reach it, was called Arsareth. 
What land was entitled to that name "far-ofi" land?" Arsareth is said to 
be composed of two Hebrew words: "Ars" and "Areth." Areth, or Areths 
meaning land or earth, or country, giving us Ars-land, or Erse-land, or 
Ireland, (Yarish) far-ofl" land, "land of Espousals," see Hos. ii. 14-20. 
The same author traces the word Kelt, or Celt, and Gael, or Gaelic, and 
Kymbri, and Engli, or Angli, and Saxon, all to their original Hebrew ; and 
says, "All these races, then, — the Danes, Saxons, Angles, Gaels, Celts (Kelts), 
Cymbri ^Kymbri), and the Northmen (German W.), are the lost tribes." 



BRITISH PHASE. 127 

Mr. Mcintosh, learned in the Hebrew, says further, "We have clearly proved 
that the place "Arsareth," to which the ten tribes journeyed, was no other 
than Ireland, a word which is nearer Erse-land in its form than is Ireland, 
and that all the peoples of these Islands can be identified with the lost 
tribes." Parkhurst says, " It seems not a little remarkable that the Northern 
nations should have retained the Hebrew word so nearly in its physical 
sense. The Saxon "Bael" signifies a fire. Bel, Bal, or Bael, was the name 
of the chief deity of the ancient Irish, which, according to Col. Wallaney, 
they derived from the Punic." 

" The people of South Ireland are the descendants of the Canaanites, 
who spoke the Phoenician language, having an alphabet of sixteen letters. 
The Irish language is identical with the Phoenician, containing the 
veritable sixteen letters. They themselves boast of this descent. There 
are manj^ ethnological proofs that they are so descended." — Edward Hine. 

As to Ireland, allow us another quotation: "I have noticed those 
Islands of Britain, as named in the Bible, called the 'Isles of the West.' " 
The Isles of Tarshish, Javan, and Earsland or Arsareth, we find other 
names given, at an early day. They were called " Yarish," a Hebrew word, 
which means the land of the sun setting, or the land afar off. This name 
comes very near the word Irish. The Phoenicians, or men from the country 
of palms, who were the first traders to these islands, called them "Bura- 
tanae," the land of tin, from this name comes our word Britannia. The 
Phoenicians also called them ''Tbernse," the farthest off land. To them 
Ireland was called the farthest off land. They knew nothing of America. 
From this name "Ibernae" came our Hibernse. In the days of Grecian 
conquest the names of all those places were changed ; those Islands were 
called " Skotee," which means the land of the sun setting ; from this name 
by the ordinary changes, we have Skuthes, or wanderers, — -and Scuthei, 
Scuthe, Scuit, Scuithan, Scythian, Scote, Scot, Scottish, Scotland. The 
Greeks also called those Islands " Cassisterides," from Cassisteros, the name 
given to tin : the tin islands. 

Aristotle, in his treatise of the Globe, called " De Mundo," dedicated 
to Alexander the Great, calls those islands "Albion," so did Festus in his 
account of the voyage of Hamilcar. The inhabitants in Scotland spent a 
long time in Albania in the east, and, as was often done, they named their 
country after the one from which they came ; the same people do the same 
thing now when they emigrate. In the account of the Argonautica, Ire- 
land was called " lerinda." 

Ptolemy called those islands '' lourna." He says, " They were peopled 
by the descendants of the Hebrews, and were skilled in smelting opera- 
tions, and excelled in working metals. The Romans called them An- 
glisca." — Pool. 

DAN, THE HEAD TRIBE OP TRAFFIC AND COLONIZATION. 

This will fully appear from what has been said, and from the follow- 
ing supplementary items. Dan's lot of land along the Mediterranean sea, 



128 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

was the least of the tribes. The lowlands he could not conquer. He con- 
quered a farm between Lebanon and the sea — pushing the inhabitants out 
of it. Here he found timber for ships, and being on the commercial high- 
way from Damascus to Tyre and Sidon, he found an excellent market for 
his surplus produce, selling ship timber at the same time to the chief ports 
of Phoenicia. Such commercial associations soon put him onto the sea 
with ships. In the day of Deborah's victory, Dan was missing, for sang 
Deborah, B. C. 1269, "Why did Dan remain in his ships?" For 5| cen- 
turies Dan (the tribe of) was upon the sea, as we can trace by the names of 
places. The Danites were not confined simply to the sea; they entered 
the mouths of the rivers, and scattered their tribal name all over Europe, 
and the western Asia. Dan-ube-Dan-iester, Dan-au, Dan-an, Dan-inn, 
Dan-tzig, Dan-enbury, Dan-etz, Dan-aster, Dan-dari, Dan, Dan-mark, Dan- 
ric Alps, and the Danish Archipelago. In Ireland we have Dan's-Lough, 
Dan-Sowar, Dan-Sobairse, Dan-gan Castle. " The old inhabitants of Ire- 
land were called Dan-onians. There was a Daniel in every house down to 
Dan O'Connell. There were Dan-ans in Argos, Greece. When all Israel 
was numbered, 1 Chron., Dan is not there ; nor is he among the tribes in 
Rev. vii. But he is in his place in Ezekiel xlviii. 1, 2. These facts show 
that in the first two periods of time, Dan was absent ; but, in the future 
division of the land, he would be found in his place. These facts are 
worthy of special attention. Eldad, an eminent Jewish writer, says, ' In 
Jeroboam's day, 975 B. C, Dan refused to shed his brother's blood; and, 
rather than go to war with Judah, he left the country, and went in a body 
to Greece, to Javan (our British isles) and to Danmark.' " — Pool. 

We have presented sufficient evidence to establish the proposition, 1. 
That for more than 500 years, previous to B. C. 720, the Israelites, under 
the leadership of the Danites, spread over Europe and the Isles of the 
West : this with a view of mining and colonization, etc. With these facts 
before us, let us pursue the sceptre of Judah. Did Jeremiah establish it 
in Ireland ? 

THE SCEPTRE OF JUDAH. 

In "Anglo-Israel" are the following declarations : 

" The ten-tribed nation, therefore, is the kingdom, and Judah lost all 
claim to the honors and rewards of the kingdom now transferred to other 
hands. So Rehoboam understood it, and he was ill disposed to allow of 
such a transfer ; for he resolved to make war on the children of Israel. 1 
Kings xii. 24. ' Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against 
your brethren the children of Israel : return every man to his house ; for 
this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the Lord, 
and returned to depart according to the word of the Lord.' I need hardly 
say that this remarkable transfer of the kingdom, throne and dignity to 
the ten tribes, secured to them all those special promises and blessings 
that God had previously made to Abraham and to his seed. It is to the 
kingdom of Israel, as then constituted, and their descendants that we 
must look for the fulfilment of those many promises quoted, and others 



LiiiTISII PHASE. 129 

yet to be noted. To the ten tribes to whom the kingdom was transferred, 
most certainly, the blessings are promised, and not to the Jews. 

That throne of David, Ps. Ixxxix. 31-37, and the kingdom of Israel 
must be in existence somewhere ; and, moreover, must have had a contin- 
uous existence throughout all those centuries. Pages 13 and 14. '' I will 
cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." Hos. i. 4, 7. " For 
the children of Israel shall abide many days without a prince, and with- 
out a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and (with- 
out) teraphim : Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the 
Lord their God, and David their king : and shall fear the Lord and His 
goodness in the latter days." Hos. iii. 4, 5. 

" Who is it that has read history that does not know that Judah, or 
the Jews, never had the sceptre of dominion for one day, since the days of 
Zedekiah, no, not for an hour." Page 15, ' 

"Judah was the recognized leader in all their journeys, marches, and 
wars, and was known as the royal tribe, and the lion was the heraldy of 
Judah. This device was given to them by God, and by them retained 
until the event alluded to in Matt. xxi. 43, when the Jews killed the son 
and heir of the vineyard, and Jesus said unto them. The kingdom of God 
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof." Anglo-Israel — page 74. " The Jews had born the royal emblems 
until now : but rejecting the son and the heir, they lost the honor and the 
glory, and even the semblance of a national existence passed away from 
them." Page 74. 

These passages we have found it impossible to harmonize. Judah lost 
the sceptre in Rehoboam, and holds it in some form till Jesus, the heir to 
David's throne, was born. How could the sceptre of Judah be in England 
and in Palestine at the same time ? If the kingdom was transferred to the 
ten tribes under Jeroboam, what had Rehoboam? Certainly not the king- 
dom, if Jeroboam had it. If, therefore, Rehoboam had not the kingdom of 
David, what had his successor? Nothing more than they inherited, since, 
therefore, they inherited nothing of David's throne or kingdom, they had 
nothing of the kingdom. Zedekiah, therefore, had nothing of David's 
kingdom, his daughter, inheriting all her father's rights, had nothing. 
What, then, did she carry to Ireland of David's throne and kingdom? 
Answer : All that her father inherited of that kingdom — nothing. What, 
then, went to the Scotch king? All that Tephi had — nothing. How 
much of David's kingdom has Queen Victoria received ? All that Fergus 
received of Tephi — all that Zedekiah had, which was all that Rehoboam 
had left— which was nothing of David's kingdom. Therefore Queen Vic- 
toria has nothing of David's kingdom. We are quite willing that the 
British empire should inherit the multitudinous seed of Ephraim, but not 
the one seed of Judah. Let her feed in the immense pastures of Ephraim : 
but it is quite too much that she should devour all the pastures of Judah. 

The way out of this dilemma is the following. 1. The kingdom of 
Israel was a united kingdom under David and Solomon, consisting of the 
9 



130 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

twelve tribes. 2. Under Jeroboam the rent kingdom com'menced. 3. The 
rent kingdom was composed of two kingdoms, the ten-tribed kingdom 
under Jeroboam, and the two-tribed kingdom under Rehoboam. Hence 
the kingdom of David was a rent kingdom. 4. Ten parts of David's king- 
dom went off with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat of the tribe of Ephraim 
and not of Judah. Two tribes, the city, temple with itg priesthood, re- 
mained with Rehoboam, and that too by divine appointment. 5. These 
two independent parts of David's twelve-tribed kingdom continued till 
B. C. 720, when the ten-tribed kingdom went into captivity. From that 
captivity they never returned. Their service was never restored. Hos. 
iii. 4, 5. 6. About 133 years later the two-tribed kingdom was taken into 
captivity in Babylon where they continued 70 years ; after which under 
Zerubbabel, (the lineal descendant of Nathan, the son of David, and the 
legal successor and heir of Jechoniah's royal estate), Ezra, and Nehemiah, 
there was a partial return. There were then governors and judges, priests 
and temple worship till A. D. 69, when they (two tribes) were scattered 
among all nations, and have thus continued to the present century. 
There has been a constant overturning since the crown was taken from 
the head of Zedekiah. "The sceptre (tribe-staff) did not depart from the 
tribe of Judah, nor the judge's staff" from its position between his feet till 
Messiah come (incarnation), and unto Him shall be the gathering of the 
people. They did gather unto Him until the rulers put Him to death. 
That the kingdom of David was to be continually overturned, and not to 
be as it was under David and Solomon is clearly taught in Ezek. 21, 26. 
" This (shall) not be the same." " Had the Jews received Him, that king- 
dom of David would then have been established ; but, He came to His 
own, and His own received Him not." He was cast out of His vineyard 
and slain. 

During 18 centuries the Gentiles have been gathering to His standard. 
When their fulness is come in then the veil will be removed, first from 
Judah, to enable them to discern that Jesus of Nazareth is their Messiah; 
and from Israel who have been lost so many centuries under another 
name. Then will Judah and Israel (12 tribes) become one nation under 
David's Son, as formerly under David. 

I (God) will give it Him (the diadem, to Messiah). The many days 
of Hos. iii. 3-5, extend from B. C. 720 to the " latter days." Such would 
be the plain. Scriptural interpretation of the prophecies concerning Israel 
and Judah. The whole twelve tribes, so far as the kingdom of David is 
concerned, have been denationalized ever since the rending of the king- 
dom. During this long period God has held the diadem, and has allowed 
the four Gentile horns to chastise His people. The image is Gentile. The 
stone is the kingdom of David's Son. 

The metalic image must, therefore, cover the " many days " of Hos. 
iii. 4. The diadem of the world left the line of the one seed under Reho- 
boam, and from that time onward Judah took a subordinate rank under 
the Gentile monarchies. The " one seed " kingdom is future ; but the 
multitudinous seed — "A multitude of nations," is present. That the one 



BRITISH PHASE. 131 

seed, Jesus of Nazareth, will rule over the two tribes and the ten tribes in 
a twelve-tribed kingdom, is certainly Scriptural; that He has so reigned is 
not true, nor has any of David's sons had such high and exclusive honor. 

Keeping out of view the future reign of subjugation, they apply to the 
past and to the present all those passages that belong to that age. The 
organization of the ''stone" kingdom is an event still future. Judah and 
Israel are the chief elements of that kingdom. Their union with the 
Gentiles of this age will be one of the first events after Christ's return. 
If, then, the world is full of hostile nations when Jesus, the Son of David, 
returns, the principal work, after the organization of His kingdom, is the 
subjugation of His enemies. His bride will then be with Him, and will 
assist Him in the work. 

Isaiah Ixv. and Ixvi. belong to that period, and not to the past or to 
the present. It is quite unreasonable to suppose that the most glowing 
descriptions of blessedness should apply to a period covered by Gentile 
domination ; one full of wickedness, and one in which the Great King is 
not personally present. 

What, then, do you do with the Irish question relative to a. The ad- 
vent of Jeremiah and Baruch, and Zedekiah's daughter in Ireland. 6. The 
marriage of Tephi to an Irish chief, c. Two tables, d. The line to Queen 
Victoria, e. Jacob's stone. /. Royal standard, g. The harp ; and many 
other historic facts? 

Are they facts of authentic history? Could we be pursuaded that 
they have authentic history as their basis we should believe their testi- 
mony. But when we learn that there are in the world enough fragments 
of the veritable cross of Christ to construct the largest vessel afloat in the 
British navy ; that there are enough seamless garments to clothe a regi- 
ment ; that Jerusalem itself is full of fiction relative to persons, places and 
things ; that every land has its legendary histories and fictions, we need 
not be surprised that an island colonized by Hebrews, and associated with 
the history of that people for 30 centuries, should have many wonderful 
traditions. Let us take the " coronation stone " as an instance. The his- 
tory of that stone, ever since it was placed under the seat of the coronation 
chair in Westminster Abbey, is known ; but who can trace its history, 
without a broken link, to the night of Jacob's vision — ladder sleep ? Who 
can keep his eye on that stone from the night of Jacob's wilderness sleep, 
to Jerusalem, then to Spain, to Ireland and Scotland till it was deposited 
under the chief seat of the British empire ? How simple the original nar- 
rative : — "And he (Jacob) lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there 
all night, because the sun was set : and he took of the stones (not one 
only) of that place, and put (them) for his pillows, and lay down in that 
place to sleep." He then describes his dreams, his ladder, and his com- 
pany. Vs. 18. "And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the 
stone that he had put (for) his pillows, and set it up (for) a pillar; and 
poured oil upon the top of it. And this stone, which I have set (for) a 
pillar, shall be God's house." Gen. xxviii. 11, 18, 22. 

So far we have its inspired history. B. C. 1760. Where, then, is the 



132 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

history of its removal to Jerusalem? "Some of the rabbins pretend that 
this very stone was placed under the ark of the covenant in the second 
temple; and the Mahometans flatter themselves that it forms the founda- 
tion of the temple of Mecca." — Calmet. It has grown very much since 
Jacob put it among the heap of stones for his pillow. But stones do grow. 
"Dr. Petrie points to a stone now in Ireland as being the one, which is 
nonsense, because the stone so shown is fourteen tons in weight." — Hine, 
That stone belongs to the worship of Baal. 

The idea that Jeremiah and Baruch took it from an eastern vessel dis- 
abled on the coast of Spain, is not probable. Too many links missing. 
Did Jacob carry the pillar with him on his journey? or was it left like 
other Eastern pillars? Was it ever in Jerusalem? If so, who removed it 
and when ? Its being iii Jerusalem rests upon the testimony of rabbinical 
tradition. 

Where is the true and authentic history of Jeremiah's life in Ireland ? 
The application of Ezek. xvii. 22, made by Dr. Adam Clarke, is without 
sufficient data, since there is not sufficient evidence that Zedekiah's daugh- 
ter was ever in Ireland. The idea that Israel must have the line of king 
David ruling over them, is by no means necessary. 

EZEK. XXXVII. 16-28. 

We shall now direct your eye to Ezek. xxxvii. 16-28. It reads as fol- 
lows : " Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it, 
for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions ; then take an- 
other stick, and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and (for) 
all the house of Israel his companions ; vs. 17, and join them one to an- 
other into one stick; and they shall become one in thy hands, vs. 18. And 
when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou 
not show us what thou (meanest) by these? Vs. 19. Say unto them. 
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will take the stick of Joseph which 
(is) in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will 
put them with him, (even) with the stick of Judah, and make them one 
stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. Vs. 20. And the stick 
whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. Vs. 21. 
And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I will take the chil- 
dren of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will 
gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. Vs. 22. 
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Is- 
rael ; and one king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no more 
two nations ; neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at 
all. Vs. 23. Neither shall they deffie themselves any more with their 
idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgres- 
sions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they 
have sinned, and will cleanse them : so they shall be my people and I will 
be their God. Vs. 24. And David my servant (shall) be king over them ; 
and they shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in my judgments, 



BRITISH PHASE. 133 

and observe my statutes, and do them. Vs. 25. And they shall dwell in 
the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers 
have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein (even) they, and their children, 
and their children's children for ever; and my servant David (shall) be 
their prince forever. Vs. 26. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace 
with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will 
place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of 
them forevermore. Vs. 27. My tabernacle also shall be with them ; yea, 
I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Vs. 28. And the 
heathen then shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my 
sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore." 

We shall examine 1. What Ezekiel is commanded to do; 2. What God 
promises to do ; the symbols and the things symbolized. The first living 
stick with its little shoots symbolizes Judah, with the children of Israel 
his companions; the second stick, with its scions, symbolizes the house of 
Joseph or Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions. Ezekiel 
was ordered to make one stick of the two. The union of the sticks sym- 
bolizes the union of Judah and Ephraim with their companions of the 
other tribes. In that stick we have Judah and Israel joined into one 
nation, forming under David or His son Messiah, the twelve-tribed king- 
dom. The overturnings have continued till 1883, and will continue till 
God gives it to him whose right it is. One nation on the mountains of 
Israel with one king. This union will be continuous and endless. 

There is not a symbol, nor a symbolic act more clearly defined and ex- 
plained than those now under review. Search out every symbol in the 
Bible with its interpretation and you will admit the truth of our remark. 
The terms "fellow" and "companions" should be carefully noted. "Fel- 
low " is joined to EjDhraim, "companions" to Ephraim and Judah. After 
the rending of the kingdom of David under Rehoboam, some of the ten 
tribes continued with Judah. Some of the Jews even to this day are the 
companions of Ephraim. 

Who can pretend for a moment that this prophecy has ever been ac- 
complished. The return from Babylon was of a part of Judah only with 
a few of his companions. There were no two distinct bodies, like Ephraim 
with his fellow tribes and Jewish companions to unite forevermore in 
purity and holiness; with Judah and his companions of the other tribes 
who had shared his destiny through marriage or commercial relationships, 
under prince David, or his Messianic son. Such a national community as 
Ezekiel describes, composed of such a holy people has never yet occupied 
the mountains of Israel. No event since that return can lay any claims 
to its fulfilment. 

It is, therefore, an event to be literally accomplished in the future. 
Its elements now exist. Judah, with his companions exist everywhere on 
the face of the earth ; and we believe, also, that the stick of Joseph, in the 
hand of his son Ephraim, is the symbol of an existing great power of the 
earth, such as the house of Joseph, a stick in the hand of Ephraim was to be. 
Read the history (prophetic) of the house of Joseph : "Joseph (is) a fruit- 



134 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ful bough, (even) a fruitful bough by a well; (whose) branches run over 
the wall; the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot (at him), and 
hated him. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands 
were made strong by the hands of the mighty (God) of Jacob : (from 
thence (is) the Shepherd, the stone of Israel :) (even) by the God of thy 
father, who shall help: and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with 
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings 
of the breasts and of the womb : the blessings of thy father have prevailed 
above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the ever- 
lasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the 
head of him that was separated from his brethren." Gen. xlix. 22-27. In 
this blessing of Joseph by his father Jacob, originated the rivalship be- 
tween Ephraim and Judah, and which culminated in the formation of the 
ten-tribed kingdom under Jeroboam, the prince of Ephraim. Those bless- 
ings were not bestowed personally upon Joseph, but as Joseph's stick was 
in the hand of Ephraim we must regard them as the inheritance of his 
children Ephraim and Manasseh. 

What volumes of the world's embryotic history slumbered within the 
Words of Jacob! What forecasting of coming events! Joseph, a fruitful 
bough by a well; with branches running beyond natural boundaries; 
prospering over all enemies; laying the foundation of mighty empires. 
A shepherd of Israel ! prospered by Jehovah in rain and dew, by being 
driven to lands where they are abundant ; blessings of the deep, ocean's 
treasures; blessings of the breasts and of the womb, numerous posterity, 
shoals of nations. Crowns of glory for the posterity of Jacob's favorite 
son; what a multitudinous seed claim Joseph, through Ephraim and 
Manasseh, as their parent. 

These blessings belong not to Joseph (for he died in Egypt) but to his 
sons Ephraim and Manasseh. This will appear in their personal blessings, 
" The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my 
name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac: 
and let them grow into. a multitude on the midst of the earth. Manasseh 
shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger 
brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he, and his seed (multitudinous 
seed) shall become a multitude of nations." Gen. xlviii. 16-19. 

" Multitude of nations " — fulness of nations. Hence Ezekiel has the 
stick (nations) of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim. Judah and Ephraim 
stand for the two tribes and the ten tribes. Their union forms the king- 
dom of David or of Messiah his son. That kingdom cannot, therefore, 
exist till the union of Ephraim and Judah shall be consummated; the 
stone kingdom, which, after its organization is to break in pieces the mon- 
archies of the earth and stand forever. 

The great future Ezekiel has outlined in the persons of Ephraim and 
Judah. The whereabout of Judah is well known as Judah was dispersed 
but not lost. Where, then, is Ephraim ? If the British Empire, the ques- 
tion is satisfactorily answered, since no other nation can fill the conditions 



BRITISH PHASE. 135 

of the prophecies. Let us now see if that empire will answer all pro- 
phetic claims. 

Mr. Edward Hine has enumerated some 77 specifications sustained by- 
over 500 Scripture proofs. We shall name those specifications which will 
develop the leading features of the identification of British Israel; such 
only as will be clearly seen and generally acknowledged. 

POINTS OF IDENTITY EXAMINED. 

1. The historical chain in proof of identity has been fully presented; 
Israel went into the same grave out of which the Saxons came. They 
went down Israel and came up Saxon. We have observed the change and 
shown how the change was made. This chain has been traced link by 
link and all the phenomenon explained. 

2. Israel was to become an island people. (See Isa. xli. 1 ; xlii. 4 ; 
xlix. 1, 18; Jer. xxxi. 10.) 

3. In the N. W. Isa. xxiv. 15; lix. 19; Jer. iii. 18; xxiii. 8; Isa. 
xliii. 5. These will show that they return from the direction of the first 
colonies, the same country to which Israel or the Saxons emigrated. 

4. Israel should, in her new home, be called by a new name. Ephraim 
or Israel is nowhere known by those names. See Isa. Ixv. 15; Hos. i. 9; 
ii. 9; Isa. Ixiii. 17; Rom. xi. 25. She was not to be known by the name 
"Ammi " my people, but loammi, not my people. 

5. Was to use another language. Isa. xxviii. 11. With about 800 
Hebrew words in it, they use the English or Anglo-Saxon language. Had 
they continued the use of the Hebrew language they would not have been 
lost. What other people have in this manner changed their language ? 

6. The land or islands were to become too small. Gen. xv. 3-6; xiii. 
16; XXXV. 11; xlviii. 16, 19. Great Britain during the last 800 years, has 
sent out 60 colonies — swarmed 60 times. This suits the prediction con- 
cerning Joseph's house, but will not apply to any other national house- 
hold. The British island contains about 89,600 square miles; and yet by 
colonization and conquest Great Britain is expanded into an empire of 60 
colonies, or nations, with 8,000,000 square miles and a population of 236,- 
000,000. China alone having a more numerous population. 

The question of identity might here rest, since no other nation on the 
globe can fill the predictions concerning Joseph and his sons Ephraim and 
Manasseh, as given by Jacob, Gen. xlviii. 16-19, except Great Britain. 
With Jacob's prophetic utterances before you, please trace Ephraim from 
the time of Jacob's blessing to the captivity, and Great Britain, for the last 
few centuries, with the fact in mind that the stick (nation) of Ephraim- 
Israel must be somewhere on the globe under some other name, and you 
will find it exceedingly difficult not to admit the identity of Anglo-Israel. 
That Ephraim with all the house of Israel his companions, has no national 
existence is to deny the truth of the most sacred predictions. This we say, 
Ephraim is somewhere, a company of nations having another name. But 
the British empire is composed of a company of nations, the only island 



136 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

nation of that character. Therefore the British empire is, at least very 
probably that empire. Before we name any other identifications we desire 
to call attention again to the symbolic stick of Joseph in the hand of 
Ephraim, with the tribes of Israel his fellows. There are two sticks, 
Ephraim must have a national being or the other tribes would not be 
spoken of as companions. And as Jacob's future history of Ephraim de- 
clares that he shall become a multitude of nations, Ephraim's nationality 
is fully established, and, as there is no other nationality except the Anglo- 
Saxon, that fills the conditions of the prophecies concerning Ephraim, we 
say again that Great Britain is the stick of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim, 
with all the house of Israel his companions. 

In further notice of the two sticks and their union (Ezek. xxxvii. 
16-28), the symbols are fully interpreted, but the interpretation of a sym- 
bol is always literal. This s^^mbol concerns literal nations, and has noth- 
ing to do with churches. Spiritual Israel (if there is such) has nothing 
to do with this prediction. Ephraim and Judah are now two distinct 
people. God intends their union, that they may, through endless ages, be 
one people. 

7. Aboriginees of Israel's colonies must die out. — This is particularly 
true of Jacob's seed by Joseph, whose stick is in the hand of Ephraim. 
Jacob's seed was to be preserved, "Though I make a full end of all nations 
whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee : but 
I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether un- 
punished." Jer. XXX. 10, 11 ; see also Jer. xlvi. 27, 28, This will be clearly 
understood when we examine the blessings on Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 16-19. 
Ephraim was to be so increased as to become a multitude of nations. As 
they increase, the native population decreases till, in many countries they 
become extinct. As John the Baptist said of Christ, "He must increase 
but I must decrease," so do the natives decrease before this foreign popu- 
lation. The Indians are decreasing before the Saxons in America. Two 
large tribes have disappeared in Tasmania. "At the present death-rate, 
twenty years will exterminate the Maorites of New Zealand, that in many 
of our smaller colonies they are already totally extinct." — Hine. 

8. Canaanites about Israel. — The Lord commanded Israel to drive out 
the Canaanites. The reasons were obvious, lest they should be corrupted 
by their heathenish idolatry. But when they found comfortable homes 
they allowed the Canaanites to dwell among them. This was displeasing 
to the Almighty, who declared that they should be pricks in their eyes, 
thorns in their sides, and should vex them in the land wherein they would 
dwell. Num. xxxiii. 55, "They shall be snares and traps unto you, 
scourges in your sides." Jos. xxiii. 13. The people of South Ireland, 
according to the early Israelitish colonization enterprize already considered, 
are Phoenician or Canaanites. Since they once spoke the Phoenician lan- 
guage (Hebrew), had an alphabet of sixteen letters, and they also boast of 
their Canaanitish descent. They have decreased one million in the last 
twenty years, 

9. Israelitish army. — Ephraim was, at an early period, powerful in 



BRITISH PHASE. 137 

war. The inspired history of Joseph, (whose stick or nationality was in 
the hand of Ephraim) indicates the warrior : " But his bow abode in 
strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the 
mighty (God) of Jacob." Gen. xlix. 24. After their captivity (of the ten 
tribes) we have the following from inspired prophets: "Therefore shall 
the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear 
thee. Isa. xxv. 3. " They that war against thee shall be as nothing." 
Isa. xli. 12. " The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might; 
they shall lay (their) hand upon (their) mouth, their ears shall be deaf." 
Micah. vii. As the Israelites were to the heathen, so have the British been 
to the heathen. Vast multitudes have almost uniformly fled before an 
inferior force. 

10. Powerful in her navy. — Her island would require a strong navy. 
In defending her colonies a strong navy would be necessary. " They went 
down to the sea in ships, and did business in great waters." Psa. cvii. 23 ; 
see Kings ix. 27. 

11. Her power superior to any other nation. — Her mission requires 
this. The stick (national power) of Joseph was to be in the hand of 
Ephraim, including Manesseh. This nationality was to defend Judah and 
Israel in the first stages of their return. It is written of Israel, " God hath 
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are 
on the face of the earth." Deut. vii. 6; xiv. 2. "The Lord hath avouched 
thee this day to be His peculiar people as he hath promised thee, to make 
thee above all nations." Deut. xxvi. 18, 19. " The Lord thy God will set 
thee on high above all (Gentile) nations of the earth." Deut. xxviii. 1. 
These passages may look to the coming age when Jesus their Messiah shall 
be their visible head ; still, it has a nearer aspect. While the remnant 
nation is gathering it requires a powerful, visible, national protector. Thus 
is Ephraim with his fellow tribes and Jewish companions, as taught in 
Eze. xxxvii. 16-28. The British empire is such a protector, aided by the 
United States. 

12. Many days without a king. — " For the children of Israel shall 
abide many days without a king and without a prince." Hos. iii. 4. This 
prophecy was uttered B. C. 785. From that day to their settlement in 
their island home they were tribes rather than kingdoms ; such is strictly 
true of the infancy of the British nation. 

13. In their worship. — The various rites and ceremonies, their Sabbath 
and their various religious institutions indicate a Hebrew origin. They 
were not derived from the heathen. 

14. Money lenders. — This will suit the British nation and no other. 
Deut. XV ; xxviii. 12, 13. " For Lord thy God blesseth thee as he promised 
thee : and thou shalt lend unto many nations but thou shalt not borrow; 
and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. 
The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the 
rain unto thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thine hand : 
and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And 
the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail ; and thou shalt be 



138 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

above only; and thou shalt not be beneath ; if that thou barken unto the 
commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day to 
observe and do (them)." Facts will prove this identity of the British 
nation. Let us examine a few authors on this identity : " Foreign coun- 
tries have, during the last thirty years added three thousand million 
pounds sterling to their debts, and the British people are the great 
lenders !" — Westminster Review. " The creation of wealth in England dur- 
ing the century is a main fact in modern history. The wealth of England 
determines prices all over the globe." — Emmerson. " The amount of in- 
terest paid on our enormous loans in England alone exceeds six millions 
sterling in a single month." — Carpenter. 

"And while we have lent and are lending at two and three per cent., 
the amount of unemployed capital is so great that borrowers cannot be 
found. ' Shall not borrow !' Who can tell me the time when Britain 
asked a loan from any Gentile nation? Why, such an idea would be 
laughed at all over the nation." — Pool. Who does not see that the British 
empire has inherited the blessing of Ephraim. ' Who shall bless thee 
with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, 
blessings of the breasts and of the womb." Gen. xlix. 25. Ephraim hav- 
ing the stick of Joseph. What vast treasures has she drawn from the sea. 
No nation has ever equaled the British commerce, increased more rapidly, 
or have been more abundantly blessed with the dews and showers of 
heaven. Such, it was required, that Ephraim should be in order that his 
seed (family) should become a multitude of nations. This identity can 
be amplified to any extent. 

In noticing so many identifications, one thing should be observed : 
They should be considered as a whole. Where can any other nation be 
found with so many resemblances ? Herein is the point of proof, that 
England resembles Ephraim in the three great classes of blessings : 1. 
Those from the heavens ; 2. Those from the ocean ; 3. For increase like 
fishes by shoals or colonies. 

AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS. 

We have given but a tithe of the evidence which might be adduced to 
sustain the British claim to an Israelitish origin. These are stated that 
the reader may be awakened to an examination of the subject. To those 
who desire to investigate the subject more extensively, we would direct 
their attention to the following authors among many others that have 
written : 1. Elias Boudinet, LL. D., who wrote in favor of the North 
American Indians; 2. "Our Israelitish Origin," by J. Wilson; an able 
work and one that in many particulars seems to be the root of many other 
works; 3. Joseph Wolf, who finds the lost tribes in China; 4. Dr. Grant, 
who writes in favor of the Nestorian claims ; 5. Sir William Jones, a very 
learned author who decides in favor of the Afghans; 6. Mrs. Dixon decides 
in favor of the Mexicans and Peruvians; 7. Rev. J. Samuels who places the 
ten tribes somewhere about the Caspian Sea; 8. Dr. Claudius Buchanan 



BRITISH PHASE. 139 

places them still in Central Asia. We have no doubt that Israelitish blood 
courses through the veins of nearly all Asiatic nations ; but what one can 
be called the stick of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim ? 9. W. H. Pool of 
Toronto; 10, Dr. Branow, Astronomer Royal of Ireland; 11. Edward Hine; 
12. Rev. F. R. Glover; 13. Dr. W. Holt Yates; 14. Bishop Titcomb ; 15. 
Prof. C. Piazzi Smyth, F. R. S., S. I. E., Astronomer Royal of Scotland ; 16. 
Lieut. Col. Vallancey, LL. D., Sir Walter Elliott, K. C. S. L.; 17. Major H. 
A. Tracey, R. A. ; 18. Canon Brownrigg; 19. Dr. Latham; 20. Dr. Potter. 
This list might be much extended since this subject within the last half 
century has commanded some of the ablest minds in the British empire. 
God makes use of human agents to carry out his divine purposes of 
national government, so that events seem to transpire in a natural way, 
and to be under the entire control of human might, both physically and 
intellectually, while Almighty power lies behind the curtain managing the 
whole machinery. Without a clear view of the workings of this invisible 
Actor, prophecy would be uncertain. 

If human governments are not under the control of such a divine 
directory, how could the prophets forecast so accurately the number, 
character, and movements of the empires ? God must have delineated 
and fixed their elements before He made any revelation to His ancient 
seers. The monarchs of the four Gentile governments appear to revolve 
in the sphere of absolutism. Still, they were under a higher control as 
was evinced in the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar. The Metallic Image 
is a picture in the book of divine symbols. It was then a picture of what 
should be, it is now an equally correct picture of what has been. Prophecy 
is history in advance. 

Human elements have to be shaped in the divine mold ; such as resist 
all higher impressions are removed, other materials, more readily fused, are 
substituted. Thus moves the Corliss engine that controls the universe. 
The stone, becoming a mountain, is also a picture in the book of 
symbols. Its elements are fixed and sure. The elements that will gather 
around the stone are in the process of preparation and are about being 
gathered. 

He that studies authentic history is simply following the footprints of 
the Diety. Let him go to the Bible for the key of this historic volume. 
God has promised the earth's diadem to His beloved Son. He shapes 
peoples, kingdoms and empires to that ultimate end. We cannot look 
upon the map of human rule, without becoming at once interested in the 
constantly changing boundary lines of its mighty empires. Cast your eye 
over the chart of eastern empires, the political chess-board of the East. 
The moves are for the sceptre of universal empire. The chiefs of the game 
are called the king of the north and the king of the south. The land of 
Israel being the observatory, the king occupying Syria at the appointed 
time and at the appointed conflict would be the king of the north; and 
the power occupying Egypt at that time would be the king of the south. 
Such is evidently the proper interpretation of those terms. 

The empires, whose boundaries are gradually approaching each other, 



140 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

are too well defined not to be known ; the Russian empire at the head of 
the Mongolian race and the kings of the east ; and the British empire, the 
powerful tribe of Ephraim, the head and protector of Israel and Judah, and 
God's Lieutenant under His Son, the Messiah, King of kings. The forces 
are now gathering and disciplining for this terrible campaign, and death 
struggle upon the mountains of Israel. It is with intense interest that we 
view the gathering elements of this coming storm : on the one side the 
robbers, on the other, the protectors of God's people ; while the Ottoman 
empire, like a Chinese wall, trembles at the hostile tread of the advancing 
armies. In the land of Israel, within and around Jerusalem, are quietly- 
returning the elements of that elect kingdom, which, under the Messiah, 
will fill the earth with His righteousness and glory. We propose to show, 
in its proper place, that Judah and Israel are now gathering to their 
own land. 

ISAIAH XVIII. EXAMINED, EXPLAINED, AND INTERPRETED. 

Is. xviii. Attention is invited to this chapter; It has been called 
obscure ; and, indeed, the translation of it and the various interpretations 
given to its language, have rendered the chapter exceedingly obscure. 
Please read. 

"■ This is one of the most obscure prophecies in the book of Isaiah. 
The subject of it, the end and design of it, the people to whom it is. 
addressed, the history to which it belongs, the person who sends the 
messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all 
obscure and doubtful." — Bishop Lowth. 

Bishop Lowth, however, gives it an Egyptian interpretation, and con- 
sequently an Egyptian translation. Since the learned prelate had no 
confidence in his own views, we are safe in rejecting both his opinions 
and the peculiar features of his translation. 

Bishop Horsley, another very noted Bishop, says that it refers to the 
Jews at the period of their restoration, and the destruction of anti-Christ. 
Since, howewer, his ideas of anti-Christ are quite obscure, and as he does 
not make any distinction between Judah and Israel, we are obliged to 
reject his interpretation, and rely upon the correctness of our own 
researches, and upon what we regard the most accurate interpretation of 
the text. 

" Wo (ho) to the land shadowing with wings, which (is) beyond the 
rivers of Ethiopia." " The Hebrew particle 'ho,' here used, is sometimes a 
note of exclamation, and at others of lamentation, according to the con- 
text; and is therefore differently rendered, either 'Wo, alas!' or 'Ho! come 
on,' which seems to be its meaning here." 

THE LAND HERE INTENDED. 

Two points of identification are given : " Shadowing with wings'" and 
its location "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." Let us examine these ex- 



BRITISH PHASE, 141 

pressions. The second is properly a key to the first, and, indeed, to the 
whole prophecy. The land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. It cannot be 
either the land of Egypt or of Ethiopia. The prophet was in Palestine, 
The prophet, looking south, south-west, west and north-west, would name 
the countries that he knew. Eg^'-pt would come first; then Ethiopia, and, 
beyond Ethiopia, the country shadowing with wings. Ethiopia was often 
called Cush. How extended was it? It, in the days of Isaiah, included all 
Africa. Ethiopia had but one fixed boundary; on the north, to the south, 
west and north-west it seemed in early days to be unlimited. The country 
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia would be beyond Africa. The word in the 
authorized version that is rendered beyond, is translated " borders on." 
The Hebrew word is ^^^D mai-ai-ver, over, beyond, on the opposite side. 
^)^ ^■jpjj'^"-lan-na-har Kush-the rivers of Kush. If the land of Kush, 
whoserivers are named, was in Africa, the order looking towards Africa, 
would be, 1, Egypt; 2, Kush; 3, Land beyond — not stating whether the 
Inda joined that of Kush, or had a sea between them. There would seem 
to be waters between them, from the expression, " Earth shadowing with 
wings." 

D^iDJD ^)£^)i pj^ nn Hoy erets tziltzal ke nop-phah-im. '' Ho to the 
earth, shady, overshadowing with wings. 

It is said that four countries were called Cush, after the name of the 
eldest son of Ham ; by what authority we know not. In Gen. ii. 13, the 
second river of paradise (is) Gihon : the same (is) it that composeth the 
whole land of Ethiopia (Heb. Kush). Cush is here an Asiatic country. 
In Isaiah xi. 11, it may also be called an Asiatic region. Dr. Wm. Smith, 
in his Dictionary of the Bible, has these remarks : " Cush as a country 
appears to be African in all passages except Gen. ii. 13. We may thus 
distinguish a primeval and a postdiluvian Cush. (Might it not read, 
Which in the days of Moses was called Cush? — W.) The former was en- 
compassed by Gihon (Araves. — W.) the second river of paradise; it would 
therefore seem to have been somewhere to the northward of Assyria. It is . 
possible that it is in this case a name of a period later than that to which 
the history relates ; but it seems more probable that it was of the earliest 
age, and that the African Cush was named from this older country. In 
the ancient Egyptian inscriptions, Ethiopia above Egypt is termed Keesh, 
or Kesh ; and this territory probably perfectly corresponds to the African 
Cush, of the Bible. The Cushites, however, had clearly a wider extension, 
like the Ethiopians of the Greek, but apparently with a more definite 
ethnic relation. The Cushites appear to have spread along tracts extending 
from the higher Nile to the Euphrates and Tigris. History affords many 
traces of this relation of Babylonia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Zera the Cushite 
(A. V. Ethiopian), who was defeated by Asa, was most probably the king 
of Egypt, certainly the leader of an Egyptian army. Very soon after their 
arrival in Africa, the Cushites appear to have established settlements along 
the southern Arabian coast, on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf, and 
in Babylonia, and thence onward to the Indus, and probably northward to 



142 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Nineveh; and the Mizzaites spreading along the south and east shores of 
the Mediterranean, on part of the north shore, and in the great islands." 

Here it will be seen that the expression, " Beyond the rivers of Cush," 
may mean beyond the rivers of the African or the Asiatic Cash. As far 
as our argument is concerned, it matters not which land the prophet in- 
tended, since the term " beyond " points westward towards another land. 
If the African Cush is intended, it follows the course of commerce, and 
Israelitish colonization ; if the Asiatic Cush is in the prophet's eye, it fol- 
lows the pathway of the Saxon emigration north and west. The land 
shadowing with wings beyond the rivers of Cush, must be northwestern 
Europe with its islands. It will be seen that to identify the land is to 
solve the problem. Jt was necessary, therefore, to dwell upon this point of 
identity. The land being identified, it will not be very difficult to ascer- 
tain the people. Bishop Lowth decided, first, that Egypt was the country, 
and, consequently, that the Egyptians were the people, and adapted his 
translation to the idea. This will appear if we compare his translation 
with the Hebrew text. The expression, " Beyond the rivers of Cush," 
with the same Hebrew text, is found in Zeph. iii. 10. " From beyond the 
rivers of Cush my suppliants, (even) the daughter of my dispersed, shall 
bring mine offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy 
doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me; for then will I take 
away out of the midst of thee, them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou 
shalt no more be haughty, because of my holy mountain. I will also leave 
in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall, trust in 
the name of the Lord. The remnant of . Israel shall not do iniquity, nor 
speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mOuth ; for 
they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make (them) afraid." This 
prophecy is dated nearly one hundred years later than that of Isaiah. It 
serves to identify the people referred to by Isaiah, viz., Israel. This time, 
however, is not the same in each prophecy. 

One point relative to the land should be noticed. Its location we 
have examined. It is the land where the colonizing and captive Israelites 
meet, viz., in northwestern Europe, where they give birth to one of the 
most extraordinary people and nation that has ever existed. Two features 
relative to the land itself, are : '' Shadowing with wings," *' The rivers 
have spoiled." Will northwestern Europe and its islands suit these two 
features ? 

" The land shadowing with wings." One Hebrew lexicon defines the 
word '7V'?V tzil-tzal, as follows: Shady, overshadowing; another says, 
Tumult of an army or shadowing. In both the principal idea is shade ; 
something that, like a cloud, casts a shadow over the land. No such a 
thought is conveyed by the word "cymbal," as Bishop Lowth has trans- 
lated it, and, consequently, makes Egypt to be the land. 

"• Wings." This word in Hebrew is from fjj3 he removed, carried into 

captivity, was hid, concealed. As a noun, a wing, skirt, corner, extremity, 
battlement. Wings carry the idea of shadow. It would not be a forced 
construction to call these wings sails, especially as vessels or ships are 



BRITISH PHASE. 143 

mentioned in the next verse. Another idea is contained in the term 
" wings," that of protection. The British navy, Protecting its merchant 
vessels, coming into and going out of all the harbors of the world, wafting 
like bees to the hive, the rich productions of every clime ; entering all her 
British harbors could not be more poetically expressed than by " Land 
shadowing with wings." How varied, how vast the commerce of British 
Israel. Born, first, in the land of Israel, banished to Central Asia, they 
are buried to the world, till they are seen beginning a second life amid the 
marshes and bulrushes of northwestern Europe, out of the "Inaccessible 
marshes and swamps" of Ditmarsia and Stormaria. They traverse the 
ocean and rivers in boats, framed of osiers, and covered with skins sewed 
together ; and such was their skill or prodigality of life, that in these they 
sported in the tempests of the German Ocean. The second birth of a 
people scattered and peeled, of a nation terrible from their beginning 
hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers 
have spoiled. 

Isaiah's prophetic view as all must admit, extended beyond the present. 
With his far reaching telescope, took in the wanderings of Israel and Judah 
till their final union under Messiah, son of David. This being true, they 
must have been seen during their long banishment in the west; for we can- 
not suppose that such a mighty empire composed of Israel and his com- 
panions should for thousands of years have had such a noted history with- 
out coming within range of prophetic vision. What a sea-training has 
fallen to the lot of Saxons (sons of Israel) ! What other people can hold 
any comparison ? Americans only, who are of that race, have any claim 
to equality. 

The land and the people! Where? What? Who? Please ponder 
over their answers. 1. A land, located at the junction of Israel's high- 
ways to the setting of the sun, that of commerce and colonization along 
the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and the land rout through western Asia 
and central and northern Europe, beyond the rivers of Cush. 2. The land 
itself, its distinctive features: a. "Shadowing with wings," war vessels, 
and fleets of commerce ; b. Whose lands, rivers, and arms of the sea and 
ocean have grooved into thousands of fragments. 3. The people, their past 
history, and their future destiny; a. A nation scattered and peeled; h. 
Terrible from their beginning hitherto; terrible to Egypt at the Bed Sea, 
terrible in the waste, howling wilderness, terrible in the land of Canaan, 
terrible in their wanderings through Asia and Europe, terrible in north- 
western Europe, terrible in their island home, terrible as sea-kings on the 
ocean, terrible by the arm and hand that opens their way and guides them. 
4, A nation (once) meted out and trodden down. 5. A people of missions 
and of missionaries; "Go ye swift messengers, go to my people, the scattered 
and down-trodden. Proclaim my salvation through the Messiah, my be- 
loved Son, that they as the angel through mid-heaven (Rev. xiv. 6) may 
at that time (vs. 7) bring a present unto me, to the place of the name of 
the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion. 

"The vessels of bulrushes," is an expression that is supposed to identify 



144 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

that land exclusively with Egypt. To this we answer : 1. The papyrus or 
bulrush is not indiginous to Egypt ; is scarce there at this time ; it belongs 
to a more northern latitude. In northwestern Europe and in England they 
are abundant. 2. The Saxons navigated the ocean in vessels like those 
made of bulrushes, while the Romans and French had large and durable 
vessels. 

We are not willing to leave this chapter without expressing an abiding 
conviction that the prophet sees Israel and his companions in their western 
home ; sea-kings in Europe ; a nation in the British islands, expanding 
into an ocean and island empire, extending onward into the age of sub- 
jugation, when an age gospel shall be trumpeted through every land 
throughout the world, and all people shall see the ensign and hear the 
trumpet of Jehovah on the mountains of Israel. 

SUPPLEMENTARY ON ISAIAH XVIII. 

We have dwelt on the stick of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim ; that 
stick, however, included Joseph's two sons, Manasseh as well as Ephraim. 
Since each was to be great, Jacob's blessings were on both : " The angel 
which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be 
named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac : and let 
them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Gen. xlviii. 16. 
Verse 19 : "And he (Manasseh) also shall be great : but truly his younger 
brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of 
nations." The blessings which Jacob pronounced upon Joseph (Gen. xlix. 
22, 27) must, therefore, be divided between Ephraim and Manasseh ; giving 
Ephraim more than half. Since the British nation answers to Ephraim as 
Saxons (sons of Isaac), the Saxons are seen by Isaiah in a home still to the 
west — in America — and in other ocean homes. 

Isaiah is called the Evangelical prophet, since he describes the gospel 
mission, "Go ye swift messengers." Isaiah's vision landscape extended 
into the age of Messiah. The prophet's landscape constantly varied as he 
ascended into the horizons of coming ages. Every step in advance, like 
ascending a mountain, increased the area of his prophetic vision. 

Hence the prophet Isaiah had first the Babylonian horizon. As he 
ascended the tower of prophetic observation ; the next in view was the 
Medo-Persian horizon ; above this the Macedonian earth came to view ; on 
a higher platform of the tower the Roman world fills his vision ; from the 
summit of the tower the glories of Messiah's kingdom reveal the new order 
of ages, in succession, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Macedonian, 
the Roman and Hebrew horizons fill the prophet's vision. Isaiah is per- 
mitted to look beyond the metallic empires into the universal kingdom of 
the stone. The sons of Isaac are traced to their western homes ; the Saxon 
is followed as he extends over the wall, and encircles the globe. 

The thought which should be left with the reader is this : Manasseh 
constitutes part of the stick of Joseph, since his was to be a great nation, 
and was associated with Ephraim in the family relationship. Is Manasseh 



BRITISH PHASE. 145 

the United States? Such is the view entertained by those expositors who 
hold to the idea of Anglo-Israel. The unity of our subject will not allow 
us, at present to dwell upon that phase of the Eastern Question. We may 
find time to illustrate that subject in the future. Our present theme is the 
British empire, its growth and its eastern mission. 

GROWTH OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 

John Baptist said of Christ, " He must increase, but I must decrease." 
Other nations may decrease, become few and finally expire, but the stick of 
Joseph in the hand of Ephraim, like Aaron's rod, has in it a living 
principle, which will cause it to bud, blossom, and fill the earth with its 
golden fruit. 

We shall now trace the growth of the Saxon element as seen in the 
British empire. The growth of the British empire is confined principally 
to the past one hundred and fifty years. Her oldest colonies extend further 
back; but her dependent nationalities are confined principally to the 
present century as will appear from the following dates: 1. Heligoland, 
taken from the Danes, 1807; ceded to Great Britain 1814; 2. Gibraltar was 
taken in 1704; 3. Malta in 1798; 4, Gambia 1780; 5. Sierra Leone about 
the same date; 6. Cape of Good Hope, 1846; 7. Natal, May 12, 1843; 8. 
Zululand, 1879; 9. Mauritius, 1810; 10. Aden, January 11, 1839 ; 11. Perim, 
1<^57; 12. Straits settlements, 1867; 13. India, 1773; 14. Ceylon, March 2, 
1815; 15. Labuan, 1846; 16. Tasmania, 1825; 17. Western Australia, 1829; 
18. Southern Australia, 1834; 19. New Zealand, 1841; 20. Victoria, 1851; 
21. Queensland, 1859; 22. Hong Kong and 15 Chinese ports, 1843. These 
constitute the eastern circle of dependent nations. 

The western nations and colonies are the following : 1. The 13 colo- 
nies became independent, 1776, (Manasseh?). 2. The following confed- 
eracy was formed in 1873 : 1. Canada ; 2. Manitoba ; 3. British Columbia ; 
4. Vancouver's Island; 5. Fiji; 6. Other Pacific Islands; 7. New Zealand; 
8. Falkland Islands; 9. St. Helena; 10. Ascension Islands; 11. British 
Guiana ; 12. Trinidad ; 13. Windward Islands ; 14. Granada ; 15. Barba- 
does ; 16. St. Lucia ; 17. St. Vincent ; 18. Tobago ; 19. Leeward Islands 
20. Antigua ; 21. Montserat , 22. British Honduras ; 23. Turk's Island 
24. Bahamas; 25. Bermuda; 26. Nova-Scotia; 27. Prince Edward Island 
28. New Brunswick; 29. Newfoundland. 

This growth of the British empire is graphically expressed in Gen. 
xlix. 22, concerning Joseph, whose stick is in the hand of Ephraim (Ezek. 
xxvii. 16, 19), "Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) (is) a fruitful bough, 
(even) a fruitful bough by a well; (whose) branches run over the wall." 
What nation can answer like Britain to the following? "Thou shalt 
break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit 
the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Isa. liv. 3. 
"Listen, Isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from afar." Isa. xlix. 1- 
In her Eastern circle now reckon Cyprus and Egypt. Egypt, it is true, is 
10 



146 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

nominally a part of the Ottoman empire, still no one can say that it is not 
under the control of the British empire. The Khedive is a British tool 
with which to accomplish her eastern missions. Egypt, Palestine (all the 
Holy Land) and Assyria, will form her eastern national confederacy. Isa. 
xix. 23-25. 

This is necessary for the accomplishment of that prediction, "In that 
day shall there be a highway out of to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall 
come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall 
serve (serve whom ?) the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel (Ephraim) 
be the third with Egypt and with Assyria (even) a blessing in the midst 
of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, "Blessed (be) 
Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine in- 
heritance." 

The British empire must, therefore, grow till her East India posses- 
sions and her Egyptian extension, through the land of Israel and Assyria, 
form a union. This empire of the south will then be prepared to meet the 
empire of the north on the mountains of Israel. 

THE EASTERN MISSION OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 

We have very briefly traced the modern growth of the British empire. 
We have marked her movements eastward, seen her establish an empire in 
the Indies, gain a strong footing in China and in Japan, holding Australia 
and many of the Pacific Islands, holding Egypt, and becoming the great 
protectorate of the Ottoman empire which now reckons Egypt, the land of 
Israel and Assyria as elements of her empire in Asia. What, then, is her 
mission in the East ? What is her special work ? This we now propose to 
consider as fully as our space will allow. The book which we shall consult 
is the prophetic Scriptures. They are replete with future history, especially 
of the two great powers of the last days : viz. : the king of the North and 
the king of the South ; or Gog, with his royal companions, opposed by the 
great protector of the Hebrews, the merchant princes of the great west, 
known by the names of "Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, 
with all the young lions thereof." Eze. xxxviii. 13. 

Great Britain is evidently in the dark as to God's purpose in making 
her mistress of the seas, and pushing her towards the Orient. Nations 
know not Jehovah till he forces their monarchs into pastures to feed upon 
"grass." They will say, "My kingdom," "My empire," while they ignore 
the power that works behind the visible throne. Queen Victoria is ignor- 
antly serving the purposes of the Almighty, while she is making use of 
vain titles of "My Empire of the Indies," "My dominions," "My sub- 
jects," etc. Are these the proper expressions of an humble servant of the 
Being that gives her life and all things? It is done in utter ignorance of 
God's purposes. The true object of her prosperity is still beyond her 
blinded vision. The Empire, as Anglo-Israel, is still "lost," and the time 
has not yet come when her true character and mission will be publicly 
made known. God opens his eyes first upon Judah, afterwards he causes 



BRITISH PHASE. 147 

Israel (British empire) to find herself. She has been nominally serving 
Jesus of Nazareth, but not as Israel. They have been his followers under 
a new name. Victoria serves the divine purposes as did the Persian Cyrus : 
"For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called 
thee by thy name : I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known 
me." Isa. xlv. 4. 

The British empire is in pursuit of v/ealth and power. Beyond her 
own selfish purposes she sees nothing, knows nothing. The wealth of 
those ancient empires of India, China and Japan is a powerful magnet to 
draw her eastward; and she is directing her mighty energies to secure 
them and open up a grand highway directly to them. For selfish, com- 
mercial purposes she desires to establish on her highway eastward a com- 
mission nation composed of the Jews (Judah) as they are acquainted wdth 
all languages, and are familiar with every species of traffic. To guard 
against their great enemy of the north (Russia) it is her policy to protect 
for the present the Turkish and Persian empires. They serve the purpose 
of a wall while she is securing her eastern dominions, and her water and 
land communications. Such seem to be the motives of the British empire 
in her movements to the east. She is being wonderfully prospered in her 
plans. Her success in Egypt was so natural and apparently so just, that 
Europe and even Russia allowed it without making any very serious objec- 
tions. Indeed Egypt appears to have been forced upon England, while, at 
the same time it was necessary for the accomplishment of her purposes. 
This is a nation led by the great Unseen. Apparently independent, yet a 
national servant. 

We have said that England's purpose is to control the wealth of the 
East. To do this she must 1. Hold the sovereignty of the seas ; 2. She 
must command the Eastern highways ; 3. She must keep in her hands the 
paramount control and the protectorate of Syria, Assyria and Persia; 
4. She must keep up a national barrier against the Empire of the North. 
These being secured she will then be able to command the commerce of 
the East. 

That England has any other object in view by her eastern movements 
we have no reason to believe. Pure selfishness follows all her national 
operations; wealth is her primary object of pursuit. Mammon is her 
national god. To that deity she pays her public devotions. 

While we thus speak we do not forget her missionary work. She is 
the chief patron of the great missionary enterprise of modern Christendom. 
Her colonies, belting the globe, fill the islands of the seas with the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth. The Cross and the Crown, through her mighty arm, 
are held up to the view and acceptance of all nations. The swift mes- 
senger, flying through mid-heaven with ''an everlasting Gospel, never flies 
beyond the shadow of her proud banner, nor lights upon any land that 
does not utter her anthems of divine harmony. What a nation ! The 
national missionary of the last days ! An oppressor ; and the asylum of 
the oppressed ! 



148 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

EASTERN POLICY OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE FURTHER EXAMINED. 

Any one familiar with the movements of the British empire eastward 
during the present century, will readily see that the fall of the Turkish 
empire, at this time, would be a great calamity to England. The Otto- 
man empire, as a nationality, is the British shield — her rampart — her 
Chinese wall extending from the Danube to the Euphrates ; keeping back 
the Northern empire. When the Turkish empire falls, it will be absorbed 
by the victors. The conqueror will be Russia or England. In either case 
it would, at present, be a great calamity to England ; for the fall of the 
Ottoman empire must bring on a general war. Such a consequence would 
be unavoidable. Should England now be forced into a conflict with Tur- 
key, all Europe would declare war against her at once. Such a contest she 
is not, at present, prepared to sustain. Russia cannot attack the Ottoman 
empire, without a terrible conflict with England. In either case such an 
event would now be premature — a terrible calamity to the returning Jews. 
Had England been driven out of Egypt, Jewish colonization of Palestine 
would have been ruined. 

The British empire must, therefore, sustain the Ottoman empire till she 
is ready for an open movement against the king of the North. This 
event is hastening but it is not yet. 

We affirm, therefore, that the fall of the Turkish empire at the present, 
would be a serious calamity to the Jews, as well as to their protector, the 
British Empire. Whatever England can do to gain power in the Turk- 
ish empire, and control over it, without provoking a general war, we shall 
expect her to accomplish. Her interest in the Orient requires it; but to 
absorb that empire, or to allow any other nation to overthrow and remove 
the Ottoman empire, would be a radical error, one that would retard if not 
defeat her Eastern mission. What would be the result if Russia's southern 
boundary took in the Turkish empire ? Palestine, in her hands, and she is 
the ancient, as well as modern enemy of the Jews? We cannot regard such 
an event, at this time, in any other light than that of an utter subversion 
of all hope of a near-coming Jewish nationality. We do not hesitate to 
affirm (what may appear strange to many) that Dan xii. 1, is now in its 
first period of accomplishment. That we are living at the " time of the 
end," there can be no doubt. The running to and fro, and the increase 
of knowledge, fully sustain that position. Michael is now standing up, 
and he is evidently at this very time the invisible guide of the British 
empire on her Eastern mission. If Gabriel and Michael were actors in 
the afiairs of Persia and Grecia, (see Dan. x. 12-21), why not more active 
in that nation which is the chosen national protector of Daniel's people, 
the Jews? Such is our deliberate conclusion. 

God controls nationalities through angelic agency. Though the 
visible powers appear to act freely, and are thus described in profane 
history, the Bible teaches that they are under the supervision of a higher 
power. It required seven years for Nebuchadnezzar to learn that Jehovah 



BRITISH PHASE. 149 

rules in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. 
God called Cyrus by name, and stated to Isaiah his mission two cen- 
turies before he was born; and yet profane history gives us the birth, 
education, and military exploits of Cyrus as one acting out freely his 
own personal character. He was raised up to do a special work for 
God's people, and the Almighty calls him his shepherd — "That saith of 
Cyrus, (He is) my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even 
saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the temple, Thy founda- 
tion shall be laid." Isaiah xliv. 28. (See Isaiah xlv. 1-5.) Cyrus ap- 
pears to do it all, and yet God says, '' I will go before thee, and make the 
crooked places straight ; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut 
in sunder the bars of iron. I will give thee the treasures of darkness, 
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I the 
Lord which call (thee) by thy name (am) the God of Israel. For Jacob 
my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy 
name; I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known me." God's 
supreme control is very distinctly enunciated in vs. 1 : " Thus saith the 
Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to sub- 
due nations before him ; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open be- 
fore him the two-leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut." Jeho- 
vah accomplishes His purposes by an invisible agency belonging to the 
angelic or messenger world. 

To this end read 2 Kings vi. 17 : "And Elisha prayed and said, 
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened 
the eyes of the young man ; and he saw ; and behold, the mountain (was) 
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." Here is Elisha's 
angelic body-guard. When Elijah went up, "a chariot of fire and horses 
of fire (light — W.) and parted them both asunder ; and Elijah went up 
by a whirlwind into heaven." 2 Kings ii. 11. One chariot was suf- 
ficient for Elijah. Kings, for show, must have a multitude. " The 
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and deliver- 
eth them." Psa. xxxiv. 7. " The chariots of God (are) twenty thou- 
sand duplicated thousands, (even) thousands of angels ; the Lord is 
among them, (as) in Sinai, in the holy place." Psa. Ixviii. 17. 

See the horsemen in Zech. i. 8, 9. Also the chariots and horses 
in Zech. i. 8, 9. Also in various other places. When any interpreta- 
tion is to be given Gabriel is sent ; if any conflict, Michael is selected. 
When Michael is sent forth, his angels are sent with him. Under 
Pagan Rome there was a terrible conflict that continued through cen- 
turies. " Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the 
dragon fought and his angels." Rev. xii. 7. 

The most distinct enunciation of God's government of the nations 
by angelic agency is found in Dan. x. 13-20, " But the prince of the 
kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days ; but lo, Michael, 
one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with 
the king of Persia." . . . ." Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I am 
come unto thee ? and now will I return to fight with the prince of 



150 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Persia; and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come." 
Such testimony abounds in all parts of the Divine revelations. And, 
as the Bible teaches that God interfered with the national governments 
of Babylon, Persia, Grecia and Rome, Pagan, may we not conclude that 
he will manage the nations till his Son commences His reign ? The 
prophets, by the power of Jehovah, have described the future. No being 
can tell the future except the one that has dominion over it. All 
those Gentile monarchies that have had to do with the Hebrew com- 
monwealth have been under the special supervision of Jehovah. The 
metallic image symbolizes those Gentile monarchies. The stone becom- 
ing a mountain and filling the earth, represents the results of the di- 
rect agency of the Almighty. 

The conclusion we thus state : If God controlled the great mon- 
archies that held Judah and Israel, so as to accomplish His purpose in 
their captivities, shall He not equally control the modern nations rela- 
tive to their return and final union ? Such a result He has directed 
bis prophets to enunciate, and such it will be. What nation but Great 
Britain, is in a position, and is competent to that great work ? She con- 
trols the seas ; has her family of nations conveniently located for the 
work, and has the will for its accomplishment. 

Secular history, in sketching the rise and progress of the world's great 
nationalities, deifies human agency ; the Bible, however, reveals a govern- 
ing power behind their thrones. That power is supreme. The difference 
between sacred and profane history is, that the latter traces the visible 
agents, while the former follows the footsteps of the great Invisible. The 
secular historian narrates facts as seen and heard ; the sacred historian 
confines his history to the sayings and doings of the Supreme. Modern 
history carries forward the narration of those national movements found 
recorded by the inspired prophets. We see in these sacred records, among 
others, a sketch of the British empire, its rise, growth and mission. In 
that history we recognize a people answering to God's enunciation of the 
destiny of the sons of Joseph, more particularly Ephraim. We have fol- 
lowed that empire in its movements toward the Orient, as it gradually 
planted its colonies over the East, absorbing Eastern nationalities, and 
holding the control of 8,000,000 square miles. 

We are forced to enquire. What has God to do with the British nation ? 
Why is He pushing that mighty empire Eastward, on the belt of the 
ancient empires ? those empires that overthrew Judah and Israel ? Why 
has that power become the protector of the Mohammedan empire ? Why 
has Egypt been thrown into her arms for protection ? Why have the 
Eastern highways been placed under her control? All these problems, 
with many others, demand a rational solution. These we now propose to 
investigate. What misson or work has Jehovah for the British empire in 
the East ? The time has come for a remnant of Judah and Israel to return 
and form one nation upon the mountains of Israel. No other nation but 
England is able, prepared, and willing to accomplish that work. 

Come, and let us reason together, upon this vital and most interesting 



BRITISH PHASE. 151 

topic. But few persons will dispute the future of Dan. xii. in its final 
results. The standing up of Michael, the great national troubles; the 
resurrection of a people ; the return of Israel and Judah, and Daniel's 
standing in his lot. The eleventh chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament 
is like the twenty-fourth of Matthew and the twenty-first of Luke in the 
New Testament. It contains the plain, literal history of events connected 
with God's people and Daniel's people, from the days of Cyrus, or Darius, 
to the resurrection and union of Israel and Judah after the standing up 
of Michael. 

That period is called " Time of the end." The time of the end belongs 
to the " latter days " (Dan. xi. 14) of Daniel's people. This great vision 
prophecy was sealed to the time of the end. That seal was to be broken 
by the increase of knowledge ; that knowledge was to be the result of mis- 
sionary efforts, and by lectures on all subjects, prophetic more especially. 
Events have brought about that wonderful period ; the day of the Lord's 
preparation. This is our undisputed location in the world's history. It 
marks the end of papal rule (civil) and brings to light that infidel agency 
(the French empire under the great Napoleon) selected by the " Ancient 
of days" (Dan. vii. 9,) to commence its execution. If that work belongs to 
the time of the end, then, truly that time has come. Where now is the 
pope's civil power? Ended. 

Read the following : " To Citizen Joachim Pecci, by trade or profession 
a pope, conducting business at the Vatican Palace, Rome." He paid his 
taxes and took a receipt like any other private citizen. Compare the 
temporal authorities of the present pope with those of the 12th and 13th 
centuries. 

GREAT WORK FOR ENGLAND — TO COLONIZE THE JEWS IN PALESTINE AND 

PROTECT THEM. 

This is Jehovah's work for the British empire. In this work she is 
now occupied, preparatory to other forward movements, under " Michael 
the Archangel" — "One of the chief princes" — "Daniel's prince" — "That 
standeth for the children of thy (Daniel's) people," The standing up of 
Michael is an event that belongs to the " Time of the End ;" and as we are 
now living in that period, Michael is standing up; and as the Jews are 
now returning, they are returning under the lead of Michael, their prince, 
who is the invisible guide of the British nation. We see no escape from 
this conclusion. Every move of British rule eastward is a lucid demon- 
stration of this — startling truth. As the line of her eastern progress is 
along the southern half of the belt of ancient empire, she was obliged to 
take Egypt first ; then the land of Israel (Palestine). The third in order 
will be Assyria, for Syria and part of Arabia, if not all, belong to the land 
of the Abrahamic promise. 



152 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

JEWISH COLONIZATION. 

The present progress of Jewish colonization is wonderful, only to those 
who do not admit that God's servant, Michael, is their invisible guide. 
With that archangel in view, the mystery vanishes. Allow Michael to be 
the prime minister of the British empire of the Orient, and the movements 
and success of that empire are readily understood. The colonization 
scheme can be fully comprehended. These colonies grow into villages; 
It is then " the land of unwalled villages that are at rest, that dwell safely, 
all of them, dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates." 
Ezek. xxxviii. 11. Who can carry on and protect such a movement but 
the God of that movement? And what visible agent has He, if we except 
the British empire? With the Bible before him, who can doubt the 
ultimate success of the colonization scheme? 

A short work will the Lord make of this movement. England's power 
over Turkey will foster and push forward this great work. The former 
prime minister. Lord Beaconsfield, laid the foundation of that far-reaching 
scheme, which is so ably but blindly supported by England's present 
premier. 

If God's purpose with the British empire is to colonize the Jews in 
Palestine ; make of them and Israel a remnant nation, and protect them 
till the Messiah takes the visible command, would not that empire be com- 
pelled to do what she is now working out? 

2. She would be obliged to control the north of Africa and the 
southern part of Asia. This would be necessary in order to secure and 
control the right of way eastward. 

3. She would be required to open up and maintain great national 
highways to the East. This her commerce would require, for it would be 
necessary to give these colonies other work than simply tilling a few square 
miles of land; the scheme would require the Jews (many of them) to be 
commission merchants, since they, in their location, would be required to 
handle all the articles moving either eastward or to the west. Being 
familiar with all tongues, they could transact business with all nations. 
They would be required to speak the English language, and their education 
would then be suited to their mission. 

Any one can readily see that the Jews, in that position, would become 
immensely wealthy. This would soon be the result, should the wealthy 
Jews, such as the Rothschilds and the Barings, take part in the movement. 
They would then excite the cupidity of Gog. "Art thou come to take a 
spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? t» carry away 
silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" 
Ezek. xxxviii. 13. 

4. It would be necessary, also, to sustain one continuous northern 
barrier against the southern progress of the Russian empire, for Russia and 
England are enemies, both from position and aim. Both empires seek to 
control the East for political purposes. One of the powers only can be 



BRITISH PHASE. 



153 



supreme. It is very evident that England, if now exposed along her con- 
templated highways, would be defeated in her plans, since Turkey and 
Persia would be forced to take a part against her. Russia's design on the 
Ottoman empire is well understood ; and she seeks a plausible pretext to 
secure her prey. Persia is too much exposed to her northern neighbor to 
make any warlike movement against her till England is in a position to 
give her ample protection. It is evident, then, that England must sustain 
in her policy the Ottoman and Persian empires. 

5. The British empire must gain the control, secretly, of Palestine, 
Syria, Assyria, Persia, and Arabia also. These points will come up under 
the investigation of other phases. 

6. She must keep control of the seas. Should any power cause Great 
Britain to lose her ocean empire, her eastern empire would come suddenly 
to an end, as she would not be able to transport her armies to defend her 
eastern possessions. What would India be without protection from the 
home government? How could she protect Egypt and the returning 
Jews? We cannot view the British ocean power, (her tonnage being more 
than double that of Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Turkey, China, 
Russia ; more than double that of all Gentile nations, the United States 
being excepted), without the conviction that the Almighty has so ordered 
it, in order that that empire subserve His purposes in gathering and pro- 
tecting His people. If the French fleet, at Trafalgar, combined, as it was, 
with that of Spain, and far exceeding that of Nelson, had been victorious, 
the sceptre of the ocean would have changed its nationality ; but such was 
not God's purpose, since the time for the return of Israel and Judah was 
approaching, and the visible agent to protect the chosen, was Ephraim, the 
stick of Joseph being in his hand, under the western name of Saxon, (Son 
of Isaac) as " in Isaac thy seed shall be called." 

7. It was required that God's executive agent in this last great 
work, should be a commercial people— a nation of merchants. This 
will appear evident if we consider that all these great results, relative 
to the gathering of God's ancient people, were to be accomplished by 
what would seem to be natural causes. British commerce requires for 
its protection an immense navy. Such a navy gives her the control of 
the seas, and makes her the natural agent to return and protect the 
Jews. She appears to act freely, yet she is the direct agent of the Great 
Unseen. 

God does His will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabi- 
tants of the earth. While England does all to elevate her national 
greatness, Jehovah is causing her to work out His own purposes. 

8. It is necessary that that nation should be a missionary people. 
Such a work as England has devised, and has been carrying forward 
during a century, was required to prepare the way for the proper in- 
struction of the people that were to constitute the ruling nation in the 
coming age. 

Many other points might be named, but these are quite sufficient 
for our present purpose. They identify the British empire as the visi- 



154 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ble power, now under the control of Michael, the great prince of the 
Hebrews. 

England is evidently pointed out in Ezek. xxxviii. 13. " Sheba, 
and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions 
thereof." To make this clear requires a very considerable amount of 
thought. The eastern world has allowed its population, like swarms, to 
move to the West, plant nations with new names, new thoughts, man- 
ners and customs, but her lands could not float with her people ; 
hence those lands carry their first Scripture names, and consequently 
impart their names to their occupants, no matter of what race. Asia 
is noted for this peculiarity. The western and southern divisions of 
the globe, being principally without any ancient names now known to 
the civilized world, could be designated by new names. Look over the 
eastern belt of empires, and mark the names of the countries : Egypt, 
Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Assyria, Persia, Media, India, China. The same 
is true of the Rivers, Nile, Jordan, Euphrates, Tigris, Indus, and Ganges. 
The occupants of those waters, and of those countries, may change their 
species and races, yet their names remain. An Egyptian is an in- 
habitant of Egypt, whatever may have been his former name. The 
name does not require that they shall be native born. The same is 
true of all countries. We are required to know what people dwell in 
certain countries at the time to which certain prophecies allude. It is 
not what people dwelt in Tarshish, Sheba, and Dedan, when Ezekiel 
uttered his prediction, but what people dwelt there in the " latter days." 
"Young lions," "merchants of Tarshish," would indicate a rule of mer- 
chant princes, and descendants or colonies of a great commercial nation. 
Since those countries are coming under the protection of England, the 
prophecy looks to that people. 

In taking leave of this mighty empire as it moves towards the 
Orient, we are obliged to admit some degree of excitement. The origin 
of the British empire, its past history and its present position, point to 
some terrible movement in the near future. 1. The standing up of 
Michael, the great prince; 2. The time of trouble; 3. The delivery of 
Daniel's people; 4. The sleepers in dust awakening; 5. The division 
of the human family; 6. The shining forth of the righteous under the 
glories of the Messiah. These are themes calculated to absorb every 
thought. Is it possible that Michael is commander-in-chief of the 
Oriental movement? Are the nations now gathering towards the 
mountai&s of Israel, preparatory to the battle of that great day ? Michael, 
that great prince, that disputed with Satan over the body of Moses ; 
that fought with his angels against the dragon and his angels ; that 
contended against the Persian and Grecian empires, is now about to 
enter into deadly strife against the dragon, the beast, and the false 
prophet. 

A world about to change its monarchs and its empires for Messiah's 
reign ! What terrible conflicts will precede the Messianic coronation ! 
No peaceful abdication! No casting of their crowns peaceably at the 



BRITISH PHASE. 155 

feet of God's beloved Son. The beast will be taken, and with him 
the false prophet, and finally the dragon must surrender his power and 
his throne. The shadows of these events fall upon us; the hour of 
conflict approaches. Nations are, at the sound of the war-drum and 
trumpet, marshaling to the places to be occupied in the conflict. Yet 
the world is dreaming; yea, and an apostate church is dreaming, of 
peace, and centuries of peaceful repose under the banners of corrupt 
and doomed nations — giving no heed to the coming storm. 

But let us bid adieu to the British empire till we trace other powers 
to the same advanced position. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 



WHO IS RUSSIA? 



It is said that God " Hath made of one blood all nations of men 
to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times be- 
fore appointed, and the bounds of their habitation ; that they should 
seek the Lord." Acts xvii. 26, 27. This national location is ordered 
to suit God's purposes relative to the Jews. ^' When the Most High 
divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons 
of Adam He set the bounds of the people according to the number of 
the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion (is) His people : Jacob 
(is) the lot of His inheritance." Deut. xxxii. 8, 9. In the land of 
Israel (at Jerusalem) God fixed His dwelling, gave to the Jews a lot, 
then divided the remainder of the earth into fields for the other nations; 
thus had the Russian his field given him of old. All the earth, which 
was not to be occupied and tilled by His special family, the Hebrews, 
was divided out to other families. As, on special occasions, halls have 
seats reserved for the noted, and for the actors in the entertainment, 
so has Jehovah reserved a certain land for special occupants, and other 
fields as specially designed for distinguished guests, such as Egypt and 
Assyria, (Isa. xix. 25) ; at the same time He (God) lets out the other 
fields to more ordinary tenants. This is right. This right He exercises. 
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It belongs, there- 
fore, to Him to parcel out the fields and to assign them their tenants. 
To the north He assigned those that, in process of time, gave birth to 
the Russian. There must have been special fitness of the family to 
the soil. Let us trace that fitness. Before we search into this fitness 
let us take a view of the field. Beyond the zone of the empires that 
scattered Israel and Judah, lies the Arctic belt, through whose heavens 
the constellation of the great bear describes its perpetual circuit round 
the north pole; and through whose snow and ice regions the white 
bear of the north wanders in quest of a scanty and precarious subsist- 
ence. The tenant family of such a field has appropriately selected the 
bear as a national symbol. This arctic (bear) field and its tenant will 
now, for a time, occupy our attention. 

THE RUSSIAN FIELD. • 

Beyond the zone of the four Gentile monarchies lies the Russian 
division of the globe. It covers all the north of Asia, and the north- 
east of Europe, and contains 8,000,000 square miles. It is remarkable, 
that, at this period, (time of the end), the empires of the north and 
(156) 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 157 

the south should cover equal areas (8,000,000 sq. m.) The British em- 
pire, however, covers the belt of ancient empires, while the Russian 
dominion lies far to the north of it, outside of the ancient fields of 
cultivation and refinement. 

Let us survey this arctic great bear, or Russian field in its various 
aspects : its topography, its geological structure, its surface configura- 
tion, its soil, its climate, and its resources. We shall then be in a posi- 
tion to appreciate the character and national greatness of its tenant. 

ITS TOPOGRAPHY. 

Its land and water divisions are exceedingly varied. Its mountains, 
hills, plains and valleys are almost endless in their extent, form, and 
aspect. The European division of the Russian field is an extended 
plain, sufiiciently elevated, however, toward its centre, to afiford sluggish 
drainage to the Caspian, the Black, the Baltic, the White Seas, and the 
Arctic Ocean. Great rivers, having their sources principally in the re- 
gion of Moscow, its geographical centre, course their ways, as from a 
wheel hub, into these boundary waters. These rivers furnish passable 
drainage, complete irrigation, and, when not bound up in winter chains, 
great commercial advantages. These plains and rivers furnish food and 
raiment, while the Ural mountains, on the northeast, furnish abundant 
supply of the valuable metals, gold, iron and platinum. Immense forests 
of pine shade the sources of its rivers, along whose banks is dwelling an 
immense population. The plains or steppes resemble our prairies. The 
principal portion of European Russia is well adapted to grazing; the 
Black, the Caspian Seas, and their rivers are occupied by immense 
fisheries. European Russia is the heart and lungs of the great empire 
of the North. Such is an outline of its topography. 

Its geographical structure has originated its surface features. The 
most ancient stratified rocks are the Silurian,, along the southern shores 
of the gulf of Finland. As you go to the southeast the Devonian strata 
appear. Still further to the east and south you step upon the carboni- 
ferous system. Russia coal is generally quite inferior; cretaceous beds 
are found and the tertiary system underlies a large portion of European 
Russia. Mining for precious metals and gems is confined principally to 
the Ural mountains, which yield gold, platinum, copper, iron, emeralds, 
jaspers, diamonds and silver, (in Siberia). The mineral resources of 
European Russia are quite extended, which fits that empire to take an 
elevated stand among the great national actors of the Eastern Drama of 
the final conflict. 

ITS SURFACE CONFIGURATION. 

Supplementary to what has been stated we may observe that the 
field of Western (European) Russia, is an irregular, circular basin, with 
a mountain sea and ocean rim, traversed by rivers flowing from its 
centre into its rim, consisting of elevated and low hills, plains and 



158 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

steppes, and table-lands. " The Alaunsky heights form the great waters, 
and regulate the course of all the great rivers of the Russian empire. 
To the north they throw off the Petchora, the northern Dwina, and 
the Onega ; to the south, the Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, Don, Kouhan ; 
to the southeast, the Volga, with its great affluents the Oka and Kama. 
The western Dwina, and the Niemen and Vistula fall into the Baltic 
Sea." The lake region commences at the northwest slope of this table 
land (elevated 1,200 feet above the sea). The plain of European Rus- 
sia is divided into three tracts ; the northern belt lies between the 
Arctic Ocean and the Ural-Baltic table land; the middle division is be- 
tween the Ural-Baltic and Ural-Carpathian table land ; the southern 
zone is bounded by the Ural-Carpathian table land and the Black and 
Caspian Seas. The water courses, fixed by its geographical structure, 
determines its surface configuration. 

Its soil varies with its geological strata, that storms and frosts have 
disintegrated. The soil of the northern division is cold and marshy, 
climate severe. Facing the icy north the sun's rays have but little 
power to permeate and heat the earth. In the middle zone, between 
the rivers Onega and Mezen, and along the banks of the northern 
Dwina, forests of firwood and large tracts of fodder-grass occur. Along 
the eastern portion of this tract, the timber disappears and immense 
marshes, frozen the greater portion of the year, cover the face of the 
country. In the west are extensive hollows, covered with woods and 
marshes. In the middle of this belt the soil is partly heavy and 
covered with mold, and towards the north, sandy. " Beyond the Oka, 
luxuriant meadows abound ; and on the east, beyond the Volga, this 
tract forms an extensive valley, covered with layers of mold, abound- 
ing in woods, and rising into hills in the vicinity of the Ural range." 

The southern belt, formed of steppes, following the shores of the 
Black and Caspian Seas, has an unproductive soil. The steppes of the 
Black Sea have a moldy soil covered with grass ; in the southeast, how- 
ever, shifting sands and salt marshes predominate. The Caspian steppes 
are formed of salt marshes and salt lakes, indicating the ancient presence 
of the sea. These salt lakes yield an immense amount of salt. The 
climate of the western division of the Russian field is severe. Exposed 
to the northwest winds, sweeping over the Arctic snows, and the ice- 
winds, rushing down from the northern Urals, the cold is, at times, 
almost insufferable. Yet nature has provided for the severity by its fir- 
clad arrangements. The climate, in the summer season, is moist and 
unhealthy. Malarial diseases are prevalent in the southern districts. 

The resources of Western Russia are very extended. Her mineral 
wealth is large, though by no means fully developed. Its soil in many 
parts is very productive. Its agricultural resources can, therefore, be 
carried, in the southern and western districts, to a high state of perfec- 
tion. Its mineral resources are quite extended. So great is the mineral 
field, that, when fully developed, they will yield an abundance to sup- 
ply the wants of a dense, intelligent, and active population. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 159 

The eastern or Siberian field of the Russian empire will now be 
surveyed. This division is of vast extent. It includes all of northern 
Asia, covering the entire Arctic zone, and including a large part of the 
Asiatic north temperate zone. It is divided into eastern and western 
Siberia. It contains 6,000,000 square miles, population 4^ millions, 
there being three persons to four square miles, the population being 
principally composed of banished criminals. Such results in a land so 
near the cradle of the human race is sufficient evidence of the inhos- 
pitable features of the country. 

Its extent from northeast to southwest is 5,600 miles; and from 
north to south is greatest breadth is 2,170 miles. Western Siberia is 
an immense plain, declining towards the north ; hence exposed to an 
arctic winter. In the middle division are immense sand wastes ; in the 
east are high mountain ranges. The world itself does not afford an- 
other region equally inhospitable. The rivers of Siberia, the largest of 
which are the Lena, the Yenisei, and the Obe, flow into the Arctic 
Ocean, thus practically wasting their waters and rendering this immense 
system of drainage of little, if any practical value to the world's general 
commerce. Along the mouths of these mighty water courses, and along 
the sea coasts, are extensive tracts composed of swamp moorland and 
mossy flats, covered with snow and ice for One-half of the year, and even 
during the greatest heats of summer, released from its icy bonds only 
to the depth of a few inches below the surface of the soil. " The ocean, 
its northern boundary, is frozen for miles sea-ward during more than 
half the year, and during the remaining months, the numberless ice- 
bergs and floes which crowd the sea and continually come in collision, 
render the navigation so dangerous that no hydrographic survey of the 
coast has yet been made." From latitude 78 deg. 25 min. N., to 64 
deg. and 61 deg. there is scarcely any vegetation, only forests of birch, 
fir, and larch. South of this frozen zone, cereals, such as barley, oats and 
rye appear. Some portions of southern Siberia are noted for their fer- 
tility. In that portion of Siberia, great empires have arisen, which, for 
a time, held dominion over nearly the entire zone of the southern em- 
pires. Yet Siberia is rich in its mineral resources. Gold, silver, copper, 
and lead, are found in all the mountainous regions. Platinum, iron and 
precious stones, diamonds, zinc, antimony, arsenic, plumbago, and nearly 
all the useful minerals are found. Such a field has God provided for 
•the Russian as the seat of the great empire of the north. 

THE TENANT ADAPTED TO THE FIELD. 

We have already examined the distinctive features of the field it- 
self: its physical characteristics; that it is the great field of the north, 
adapted to development of a hardy race, with great natural facilities, 
yet requiring great physical and mental powers to develop its resources ; 
we shall undertake to trace and describe the families God has selected 



160 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

to cultivate this iield from age to age, till they have grown up into the 
great empire of the North. 

To accomplish such a task requires, perhaps, more research and 
ability than we may be able to command. We have investigated the 
subject and shall venture to lay before our readers the principal re- 
sults of our laborious inquiries. Whence the name, Russian ? What peo- 
ple, have, through ages, been so far assimilated as to be formed into an em- 
pire ruled by one despotic head ? The people and their training are points 
of great interest ; and especially God's purpose in creating and developing 
such a nationality. We cannot fully explain the character and mission of 
the Russian empire without keeping constantly before the mind of the 
reader certain truths, both elementary and inspired : 

1. God, as the Creator of the earth, had a purpose in its creation, and 
has the right and power to execute that purpose. 

2. God created man as its subordinate ruler, He himself holding the 
supreme control. 

3. He had the right and the power to say how the earth should be 
parceled out and governed. 

4. He had the right and the power to select any land or spot as His 
special dwelling place where, by visible agents, He could give instructions 
relative to His divine will and purposes. 

5. He had the power and the right to select and qualify any family, 
out of all the families, to carry out His instructions, which were to benefit 
all the families. 

6. He had the right and the power to select Eber to give birth to that 
family of teachers of all the human race. 

7. He had the right and the power to locate this world's university, 
and to appoint its president, and select its faculty. 

8. Also to grant them special official privileges, and to sustain them 
in the exercise of such official authority. 

9. Also, to clear the ground of any rubbish occupying the site of the . 
seminary to be erected, or on the lands allotted to the faculty of in- 
struction. 

10. In a word, to do with the earth what a land owner has a right to 
do with his farm. 

With these points before us please allow us to read out of the word : 
" He (God) giveth to all life, and breath and all things j And hath made of 
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and* 
hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habi- 
tation." Acts xvii. 25, 26. Men of all nations are brethren by blood, since 
they have one Father. " When the Most High divided to the nations their 
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the 
people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's 
portion (is) His people; Jacob (is) the lot of His inheritance. He found 
him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him 
about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an 
eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 161 

wings ; (so) the Lord alone did lead him, and (there was) no strange God 
with him. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, that he 
might eat the increase of the fields ; and He made him suck honey out of 
the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, 
with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat 
of kidneys of wheat ; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." 
Deut. xxxii. 8-14. 

Here God's purpose relative to the nations is clearly stated ; that it was 
according to the number of the children of Israel. He reserved a location 
for Israel, and his seminary, and His (God's special dwelling place where 
He might, through His Hebrew faculty, instruct all nations ; then divided 
the remainder of the earth among the other nations, according to their 
habits and His fixed purposes relative to the Hebrews and the future reign 
of His beloved Son. Dr. Boothroid thus expresses it : " That when God 
fixed the boundaries of other nations. He allotted also a land sufficiently 
large to contain the children of Israel ; and He so favored, by revealing His 
will to them and dwelling among them, that they may be said to be His 
own inheritance." What right, then, had the Canaanites to that land, ex- 
cept that of conquest ? God had allotted it to the Israelites, and having 
held it only by the right of bloody robbery it was their duty to surrender 
the land to its rightful owners, or pay rent. This was all that the Israelites 
required. They refused to surrender the land, and were, therefore, legally 
dispossessed. Jacob Bryant says, " The Canaanites were certain usurpers, 
and acted in open defiance of God's ordinance, by seizing upon the land 
appropriated from the beginning to the children of Israel." In the Euse- 
bian Chronicle of Scaliger is the following : " He (Canaan) trespassed 
upon the rights of his brethren and seized upon the land which had been 
appropriated to God's future people. When, therefore, the Israelites were 
brought to Canaan they came to their own inheritance, and those who 
usurped their property knew it, and knew by whom it had been ap- 
pointed." All the Canaanites, tribe by tribe, were exceedingly corrupt. 
Their cups were all full under the sentence of execution. God had a right 
to execute the sentence by any agent He might see fit to depute. 

In allotting the earth to the three sons of Noah after the flood, the di- 
visions were made according to a certain natural fitness, as well as accord- 
ing to the divine purpose. God moves with intelligent forethought in fix- 
ing human habitation. He works by a divine plan to carry out His ulti- 
mate purposes relative to its future government. Ham and his posterity 
were to people Africa ; Shem, Asia, and Japheth the islands of the sea, or 
Europe with the islands and all those countries which the Jews visited by 
sea. Now we affirm that this allottment was the act of one who had a pur- 
pose and a plan devised for its execution, and that He brought into being 
and located the nations for the special work of accomplishing that purpose. 
Such a plan appears in giving birth to the four horns that have scattered 
Judah. Babylon is God's first executive agent in the punishment of Judah. 
By the abuse of their executive commission, God brings Cyrus at the head 
of the Persian empire to execute His judgment on Babylon. To punish 



162 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the Persian empire for its abuse .of delegated power, Jehovah brings the 
swift judgments upon that empire in the person of Alexander the Great at 
the head of the Greco-Macedonian empire. That empire by the abuse of 
their great national authority over Judah, under Alexander's successors in 
Egypt and Syria, a fourth empire,' the Roman was raised up by Jehovah to 
execute His divine wrath upon the Macedonian empire. Such have been 
the severe oppressions of the Roman empire, on the unfortunate Jews that 
they were obliged to flee out of western Europe, to find an asylum among 
the nations eastward. Thus has the Almighty not only allotted their 
special fields relative to the number of the children of Israel, but He has 
regulated and guided their national movements in such a manner as to 
grade the punishments of His own people according to the laws of justice 
iand divine mercy. He has not allowed their extermination, though He 
has often permitted their banishment. 

To the casual reader history is simply the record of the acts of in- 
dependent monarchs, carrying out the dictates of their own free volitions ; 
it delineates the movements of a confused multitude of sovereigns, without 
any central being to combine all the national systems of political, social 
and religious actions, into a unity of purpose. To such as see God in his- 
tory, a hand behind all visible thrones is discovered to be in constant mo- 
tion, regulating and controling all human volition and action. He learns 
that all national movements are parts of one great system under the guid- 
ance of one supreme, all-powerful agent. Human action, is therefore, in its 
infinite variety of phases, but parts of one great whole. They tend to the 
accomplishment of some great purpose. That purpose we labor to bring to 
the surface that all that read, may see and understand. 

So far our remarks have been general ; rather preliminary in their 
character. We have been induced to introduce such thoughts and reflec- 
tions relative to the Russian field and its tenant for the reason that as an 
ancient enemy, located beyond the belt of those empires which have been 
used as the executive agents of Jehovah's wrath against His own chosen, 
the Almighty has had no special mission for that people, or this great 
northern empire. Such ideas, are, perhaps, generally entertained. We 
hope to be able, in our sketch of this people and empire, to demonstrate 
that God created the Russian and his empire for a special work that, in the 
past, Russia has, at times, done a noble work for the children of Israel ; 
that she is now accomplishing a necessary act, yet for wicked purposes ; 
and that her future course will be overruled to the glory of God ; and that 
Russia forms no exception to the declaration of universal appropriateness, 
that all nations have their divisions allotted them, relative to the children 
of Israel. That He has had and still has something to do for Israel, besides 
that of robbery. 

We purpose to make visible the divine hand behind the Russian 
throne also, and that, on some occasions at least, that power has filled to- 
wards the Jews, an office similar to that of the Persian Cyrus. 

We shall investigate the Russian Phase of the Eastern Question under 
the following general divisions : 1. The early history of the Siberian or 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 163 

Asiatic Russia. 2. European Russia — (a), the Russian of what race? (6) 
how formed for executive power ? (c) rise of the Russian empire ; its 
growth and mission. The future of Russia — her national elements, or 
tribes ; where located ? and how, and for what purpose combined ? What 
position will she occupy in the final struggle? Her position during the 
age of subjugation. What is her mission — at the close of the millennial 
era ? The Russian field during the joint reign. Its physical aspect, com- 
pared with its present inhospitable dreariness. 

SIBERIAN OR ASIATIC RUSSIA. 

This, the eastern and the most ancient northern division of the Russian 
field, has been very briefly described relative to its physical aspects. No 
part of the globe has less natural attractions. It would seem that a very 
large portion of its more northern territory is totally unfit for the abodes 
of civilization; yet man, in his restless hunt for objects to gratify his in- 
satiable curiosity, early traced his pathway through this inhospitable 
region. The wheel of time, in its swift revolutions, cast its human scintil- 
lations far beyond the limits of the centripetal force of more genial lati- 
tudes. God has, however, designed the entire globe to be peopled, and to 
that end He has made man a cosmopolitan. His purpose was indicated in 
the great variety of the human family as to physical organization. This 
is distinctly seen in the three sons of Noah. These three men were ap- 
pointed by the Earth's Proprietor to people the earth. To accomplish 
His purpose, it was necessary to adapt their constitutions severally to the 
fields they were to occupy. Those fields were Asia, Africa and Europe, 
and the islands of the sea, including America and Australia. These in- 
cluded three classes of zones, the torrid, the temperate, and the frigid. The 
names of Noah's three sons point out their intended localities. 

Ham (Qn Cham) warm, hot, black becomes black by heat, from OOP? 
Chamam, it was warm; hence HQH cham-mah, the sun. Job xxx. 28, be- 
cause of its burning heat. Hence, also Egypt or Africa, i. e., the hot, 
burning country. Ps. cvi. 22. " The Coptic or native name of Egypt is 
Kem or Chem, supposed to be the same word as Ham, and signifying both 
black and hot," or black by the sun's heated rays. In hieroglyphics, 
Egypt is expressed by K. M. On the Rosetta stone the word is found 
more than ten times, and is read by ChampoUion Chme. The name, in 
its signification, belongs to Ham's posterity, rather than to himself. Why 
this name given to this son rather than to either of the other two? Simply, 
that it was suggested to Noah by the same Being that named " John " and 
*' Cyrus," for Ham was not blacker than Shem or Japheth. It is clear that 
Ham's posterity were intended to be the tenants of a hot, burning field, 
and in that manner become sunburnt, or black. Are not the names of 
Shem Japheth prophetic also ? 

Shem (QJ^ Shem) signifies name, renown. How could Noah discern 
to give this son, when an infant of a day, a name that should express the 
features of his character in mature age, and that would apply also to his 



164 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

posterity ? The solution is evident. It was suggested to Noah by Him 
that fixed, in advance, his field, his character, and his destiny. Shem and 
his posterity were to inherit the site of Eden, and have renown. "Cursed 
be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." '' Blessed 
(be) the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his sdrvant." Gen. ix. 
25, 26. This prediction was given to Noah by the Supreme Ruler of all 
nationalities and the character of the people is adapted to their field and 
mission. The Hamitic and Shemitic nations, as to their physical and 
national traits of character, correspond with these ancient and inspired 
predictions. 

The name Japheth (rifi^ Yahpheth) the extender, or fair, has also been 
given by one who knows the character from the beginning, Japheth's 
posterity was to be fair, and spread over the world. Two derivations are 
given to the name. Some of the learned say that it comes from the 
Hebrew word pathah, to open, to stretch out, and means " widely dis- 
persed." Gesenius says that it comes from yaphah, to be fair or beautiful, 
pointing out the fair complexions of the Japhetic, Caucasian or European 
races. His descendants first peopled the north and west of Asia. Then 
they occupied " the isles of the Gentiles." The prediction of Noah is, 
"God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and 
Canaan shall be his servant." Gen. ix. 27. And in Gen. x. 5, it is said, (" By 
these, the descendants of Japheth,) were the isles of the Gentiles divided 
in their lands; every one after his tongue, after his families, in their 
nations." Calmet says, " the term comprehends all those countries to 
which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea, whether in Europe or Asia 
Minor." It may also include all those western islands and divisions occu- 
pied by his descendants. America would thus be included. 

" God shall enlarge Japheth." Bagster has the following : " Japheth 
denotes enlargement ; and how wonderfully have his boundaries been en- 
larged! For not only Europe, but Asia Minor, part of America, Iberia, 
the whole of the vast regions of Asia north of Taurus, and probably 
America, fell to the share of his posterity. 'Dwell in the tents of Shem.' 
These words are ambiguous , for they may mean either that God or that 
Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem. In either sense the prophecy 
has been literally fulfilled." " In Judah God is known ; His name is great 
in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in 
Zion." Ps. Ixxxvi. 1, 2. When the Son of God was made flesh, and dwelt 
among the Jews, the children of Abraham and of Shem, God did also per- 
suade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, when the Gentiles were ad- 
mitted, in the Christian, to equal privileges with the Jewish church. We 
prefer, however, the literal construction. It is true that Shem has dwelt 
in Japheth, and Japheth in the tents of Shem; but Ham has not dwelt in 
the tents of either. Who but the Supreme Ruler could have written the 
unformed characters of Shem, Ham and Japheth ? God, then, made an 
allotment to the sons of Noah, according to certain fitness, which He Him- 
self originated and brought about in its own proper time. 

Who, then, were the first inhabitants of Siberian Russia after the 



EUSSIAN PHASE. 165 

flood? After a careful study of the histories of the Hamitic period, such 
as the Cushites, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians, we are safe in exclud- 
ing the descendants of Ham from the tenantry of Siberian Russia. God 
had no mission to the extreme north for the dark, sunburnt race of Ham. 
His work lies principally in the torrid zone, though his nomadic home 
may lie in the more temperate latitudes. They may at times have been 
the slaves of the Persian kings and nobles, and therefore have mixed a 
sprinkle of their blood with that of Shem ; and, still later, have, in a 
similar manner, tainted the blood of Japheth, but not sufficient to leave 
any national or race lines. The first tenants, therefore, of the Siberian 
field were, in its eastern division, Shemitic, and in its western part 
Japhetic. Profane history does not aid us materially in our researches 
after its most ancient inhabitants. The Bible alone furnishes our infor- 
mation. 

In Gen. x. is an inspired statement which it is well to follow, since it 
contains a list of the generations of Shem and Japheth, and the fields to 
which they were principally assigned. In the days of Peleg, (division) 
the earth was divided. Gen. x. 25. The generations of Shem were as- 
signed to southern and middle Asia, the finest regions of the East. So far, 
then, as the first settlements of the fields of northern Asia are concerned, 
we can exclude the early generations of Shem also. The nations of 
Shemitic blood had their fields further south, leaving the frigid north to 
the generations of Japheth, the eldest son of Noah. Of these it is said : 
" The sons of Japheth, Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and 
Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer : Ashkenaz, and 
Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan : Elishah, and Tarshish, 
Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in 
their lands ; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their na- 
tions." Gen. X. 2-5. The list of Japheth's posterity, as here enumerated, 
is the following: 1, Gomer; 2, Magog; 3, Madai; 4, Javan; 5, Tubal; 6, 
Meshech; 7, Tiras; 8, Ashkenaz; 9, Riphath; 10, Togarmah; 11, Elishah; 
12, Tarshish; 13, Kittim; 14, Dodanim. These, with their descendants, 
peopled the great north and west. In this list are found the tribal ele- 
ments of the present empire of the north, known as the Russian empire. 

Let us scrutinize this family record more in detail. Before we enter 
upon this difiicult and perplexing analysis, it will be better to complete 
the record. Ezekiel has the following additional names of tribal races, or 
ethnological divisions, which we append as supplementary, viz.: 15, Gog; 
16, Sheba; 17, Dedan. Numbers 16 and 17 are southern tribes, and will 
not be noticed for the present. Number 18 we add from Gen. xlvi. 21 — 
Rosh, son of Benjamin, a northern family of the race of Shem. These 
last four will be noticed under their appropriate heads. 

Gog (X)^ high mountain) was a Reubenite, and grandson of Joel, B. C. 
1600. He was a prince of Rosh, Meshech, Tubal, and Tiras, in ancient 
Scythia or Tartary. Let us now examine the list in Gen. x. 2-5 : 



166 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

SONS OF JAPHETH. 

1, Gomer; was the eldest son of Japheth, whose posterity settled the 
isles of the Gentiles, every one after his tongue, family and nation. Calmet 
identifies the Gomerites with the Cimmerii originally inhabiting the 
region north and east of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. At an early 
day, penetrated into Asia Minor, and in the seventh century B. C. overran 
Lydia. Dr. Wm. Smith, in his Bible Dictionary, says, ''His (Gomer's) 
name is subsequently noticed but once (Ezek. xxxviii. 6) as an ally or 
subject of the Scythian king Gog. He is generally recognized as the pro- 
genitor of the early Cimmerians, of the later Cimbri, and the other branches 
of the Celtic family, and of the modern Gael and Cimry, the latter preserv- 
ing, with very slight deviation the original name." Another author says : 
" Gomer ; the Celts or Cimmerians. Under these names may probably be 
included the descendants of all the barbarous bands in the north of Asia." 
Cottage Bible: "And thou (Gog) shalt come from thy place out of the 
north parts, thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon 
horses, a great company, and a mighty army. Ezek. xxxviii. 15. Josephus 
understands the Galatians of northern Phrygia to be intended; and Gim- 
meri or Gamir, was in the language of the ancient Armenians, a usual 
designation for their neighbors, the Cappadocians. It is not impossible 
that an intimate ethnological connection between the Cappadocians of 
Kephalion and the Cimmerians of Homer may ultimately be established ; 
but meanwhile it is important to observe that the three sons of Gomer, as 
named in Gen. x. 2, admit of a tolerably definite localization. Ashkenaz, 
who has sometimes been identified with the Germans, is almost certainly 
the same as the Ascanians, a very ancient tribe of northern Phrygia, 
Riphath has nothing to do with the Riphsean mountains, with the Carpa- 
thians, or with Niphates, but, as Josephus has pointed out, is to be identi- 
fied with Paphlagonia; as Bochart has shown, the name probably survives 
in the designation of a river in Bythnia, and in a district situated on the 
Thracian Bosphorus. "Although Togarmah is by Josephus interpreted as 
equivalent to Phrygia, there is a considerable amount of ancient testimony 
in favor of its identification with Armenia. It is possible that the same 
root is actually at the basis of the two words ; at all events the connection 
is assumed in the account which the Armenians themselves give of their 
legendary history." — Library of Universal Knowledge. 

Our object in tracing these modern empires to their very distant origin 
in their Eastern home is to enable the reader to discern the finger of God 
pointing them to their origin, progress, and their work. The descendants 
of Gomer have been fully described since that family furnishes a key to the 
colonization schemes of the north. To comprehend the national localities 
of the Gomerites is to solve some of the most difficult problems in both 
sacred and profane history. Are the Germans Gomeritic in their origin ? 
Such seem to be the views of many learned expositors. Still that ethno- 
graphical position involves many serious difliculties. 1. The Cimbri be- 
long to the first of the three great emigrations from the East as their loca- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 167 

tion in the extreme west and northwest of Europe clearly demonstrates ; 
the Germans, Goths or Scythians are of the second emigration, they being 
settled in middle Europe east of the Cimmerians. That the Germans now 
occupy some of the countries once held by the Cimbri, is no difficulty, 
since they drove the first emigrants before them, occupying their lands. 
The Gomerites are Japhetic, the Germans are Shemitic. Their name (Ger- 
man) is not ancient; these of the second emigration were great warriors 
rushing down upon the Roman empire from the north, hence the name 
given them by the Romans : Northman, Garman, German, War-man. 

The position of the Germans, relative to the Russian empire would be 
an insuperable barrier against their forming an integral part of the Russian 
empire in the near future. The Germans are not in sympathy with the 
Russians, either in social, political or religious life. Germany belongs to 
the west, not to the east, nor to the north. The Gomerites are Asiatic and 
belong to the eastern or Siberian division of the northern empire. 

Should it be admitted that the Cimmerians (Keltoi or Kimmerians) 
were a colony of Gomerites from Asia Minor, it does not follow, 1. That 
the parent stock was removed from Asia; 2. Or that the Gomeritic nations 
did not spread their colonies over northern Asia ; or 3. That the Germans 
are Gomeritic; they might be called Kimmerians when occupying the 
country which they had wrested from the Kimbri, or Kimmerians, as per- 
sons from all nationalities, when removing to America are called Ameri- 
cans since it becomes their adopted country. If the Kelts (Kimmerians) 
are Gomerites, they are not German. As well might we call Irish and 
Welch, German. Here is a vital point in the principles of ethnography or 
anthropology. The population of Europe is composed of the families of 
three distinct emigrations from different regions of Asia, speaking three 
different languages. 

Let us hear the great English historian, Sharon Turner, " From the 
languages already remarked to have prevailed in Europe, we have clear in- 
dications of the three distinct and successive streams of population, to 
which we had alluded, because we find two separate families of languages 
to have pervaded the northern and western regions ; with a third, on its 
eastern frontier, each family being peculiar to certain states. These three 
languages may be classed under the general names of the Keltic, the 
Gothic, and the Slavonic ; and from the localities they may also be called 
the Kimmerian, the Scythian and the Sarmatian. Of these, the Welsh, 
the Gaelic, the Irish, the Cornish, the Armoric, the Manks, and the ancient 
Gaulish tongue, are the related languages which have proceeded from the 
Kimmerian or Keltic source. The Anglo-Saxon, the Francotheotisc, the 
Maeso-gothic, and the Islandic of former times ; and the present German, 
Suabian, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Orkneyan, English 
and lowland Scotch, are ramifications of the great Gothic or Scythian 
stock. The third genus of European languages, the ancient Sarmatian, or 
modern Slavonic appears in the present Polish and Russian, and in their 

adjacent dialects The Keltic or Kimmerian is in the farthest part of 

the west, in the British islands and on the western shores of France. The 



168 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Scythian or Gothic languages occupy the great body of the European con- 
tinent, from the ocean to the Vistula, and have spread into England. In 
the eastern parts of Europe, most contiguous to Asia, the Sarmatian oi 
Slavonic tongues are diffused. So that we perceive at once, that the Kim- 
brian or Keltic nations, to have reached the westerly position, must have 
first inhabited Europe; that the Scythian or Gothic tribes must have fol- 
lowed next, and have principally peopled it ; and that the Sarmatian, or 
Slavonic people were the latest colonists. Other nations have entered it at 
more recent periods as the Huns and the Romans ; and some others have 
established partial settlements, as the Lydians in Tuscany, the Greeks at 
Marseilles and Italy, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in Spain. But the 
three stocks already noticed are clearly the main sources of the ancient 
population of the European continent in its northern and western por- 
tions." 

Herodotus, the father of Grecian history, says that he learned from the 
Scythians themselves that the Kimmerians had occupied those countries 
which the Scythians occupied in his days. In the time of Herodotus, the 
Scythians were spread over Central Europe from the Danube towards the 
Baltic and the north. The Kimmerians were in Europe in the days of 
Homer, who was cotemporary with Solomon B. C. 1000. More than 
seven hundred years before Christ the Kimmerians were attacked by the 
Scythians. Some of the Kelts fled into Asia Minor, others went farther 
west and north to the German Ocean. Here they lived in a dark, woody 
country where the sun is seldom seen, from their many lofty and spreading 
trees which reach into the interior as far as the Hercynian forest. The 
Kimmerians were a predatory and wandering nation. 

It is very evident, therefore, that the Kimmerians and Germans were 
two distinct divisions of the human family, and belonged to distinct emi- 
grations. The Kimmerians were Japhetic, the Germans belong to the 
family of Shem. They were anciently called Scythians (wanderers), the 
Goths, God's people; still later they were named German, north men, war 
men. The German empire has never been, neither will it ever be a part of 
the Russian empire. It is the clay of the metallic image, an element of the 
fourth monarchy, the Romano-German empire, and is the western division 
of the triple empire that makes war against the Son of God in the future 
conflict. Let us now take leave of Gomer and his sons till they rush down 
from the north in the army of Gog. 

Some other names in the list of Japhetic worthies will now come up 
for examination, in order to ascertain the anthropological elements of 
Asiatic Russia, and obtain a more definite knowledge of the tribal mixture 
of Russian character. Magog is the name of another son of Japheth. The 
country to which his name is given will decide the location of his posterity 
so far as the original stock is concerned. This name also seems partly 
prophetic. It appears to be a compound term, formed of Ma which desig- 
nates a country, and Gog the title of a class or family of monarchs, such as 
the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Caesars of Rome. It is located in ancient 
Scythia, in the northern part of Siberia. Michalis says that " Magog de- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 169 

notes those vast tracts of country to the north of India and China which 
the Greeks call Scythia and we Tartary." " Scythopolis (Scythian city) 
and Hieropolis which the Scythians took when they overcame Syria, were 
ever after by the Scythians called Magog." " The Arabs call the Chinese 
wall, Sud Yagog ei Magog.'" — Newcome. 

Scyth means wanderer. The Greeks, therefore, called all those no- 
madic tribes of northern Asia, Scythians, wanderers, or as we would say, 
tramps. Their nomadic life gave character to the people; with their flocks 
and herds they moved from place to place for fresh pastures. A mountain 
range divided Scythia into two parts called '* Scythia within Imaus (to- 
wards the southwest) and Scythia beyond Imaus, sometimes denominated 
Serica." 

Those northern tribes often sent out colonies to the south and west 
and gave their names to new countries. They settled east of the Caspian 
Sea and along the Chinese wall, which countries are now called Indepen- 
dent Tartary towards the west and Chinese Tartary next to China. They 
sent immense colonies to the far west, who entered Europe, driving the 
Kimmerians before them. 

Madai was the third son of Japheth. The descendents of Madai gave 
their name to a country called Media; hence the origin of the Medes and 
Persians, the second monarchy of the metallic image of Dan. ii. Madai's 
posterity dwell in central and northern Asia, giving variety to Russian 
character and a further Japhetic mixture of Russian blood. 

Javan was the fourth son of Japheth. He is supposed to be the father 
of Greeks. Some have suggested England as the country of Javan named 
in Isa. Ixvi. 19, " I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, 
(to) Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, (to) Tubal, and Javan, (to) 
the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory ; 
and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." Again, Javan is 
noticed in Ezek. xxvii. 13, " Javan, Tubal and Meshech, they (were) thy 
(Tyre) merchants : they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in 
thy markets. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with 
horses and horsemen and mules." From a comparison of these passages 
we conclude that Javan settled somewhere between the countries occupied 
by Meshech and Tubal, but their colonies went farther south and west, 
into Greece more particularly. Javan's posterity, therefore, forms another 
element in Russian character, and helps to make up the sum of those an- 
thropological mixtures so apparent in the Russian of the 19th century. 

Tubal is the fifth son of Japheth. It is thought that Tobolsk in Si- 
beria has its name from Tubal. If this be correct there is no difficulty in 
designating his location. His original location was probably between the 
Black and the Caspian Seas, not far from the country of modern Georgia. 
He is associated with Javan and Meshech and was in one of the original 
divisions of the land after the flood. His descendants form another ele- 
ment in Russian character. 

Meshech is the sixth son of Japheth as named in the table. They are 
among the remotest and rudest nations of the world. " Both the name 



170 THE EA&TERN QUESTION, 

and the associations are in favor of the identification of Meshech with the 
Moschi ; the form of the name adopted by the LXX. and the Vul. ap- 
proaches most nearly to the classical designation. The position of the 
Moschi in the age of Ezekiel was probably the same as is described by 
Herodotus, iii. 94, viz., on the borders of Cholchis, and Armenia, where a 
mountain chain connecting Anti-Taurus and Caucasus was named after 
them Moschici Montes and where also a district named by Strabo (xi. 
497-499) Moschice. In the Assyrian inscriptions the name appears in the 
Form of Muskai." — Dr. Wm. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Meshech is, 
consequently, a sixth element in Russian character. 

Rosh. Dr. Wm. Smith says that Rosh is a Scythian tribe. Gesenius 
locates the tribe on the north of Taurus, and are so-called from the neigh- 
borhood to the Rho or Volga, and that in this name and tribe we have the 
first trace of the Russ or Russian nation." These are some of the original 
tribes that peopled Scythia or Asiatic Russia. 

Gog. Having noticed the original location of the sons of Japheth, 
that they settled those countries now constituting a part of Scythia and 
Siberia, which form eastern or Asiatic Russia, we shall here name a few 
ideas relative to their king of the last days. Gog — "Gog (the prince) of 
the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal." "Gog was 
the common name of their kings, as Pharoah was of the kings of Egypt." 
— Boothroyd. 

Michaelis compares the word Gog with Kak, or Chak, the general 
names of kings among the ancient Turks, Moguls, Tartars, Catanians and 
Chinese. Gog is evidently the royal commander of the great northern 
army. The prophet addresses Gog as a despotic prince ; one that has the 
most absolute control of his subjects. As this noted character will appear 
in his proper position in the approaching conflict on the mountains of 
Israel, we shall take leave of him till we trace the gradual increase of his 
power. 

A few thoughts relative to the occupancy of the field, now forming the 
territory of the great northern empire, from the time of its first settlement 
by the sons of Japheth and their posterity to the birth of the Russian, will 
be necessary to a proper appreciation of his character and the divine mis- 
sion of his mighty empire. 

How was that great field occupied from the days of Japheth to the rise 
and supremacy of the Pharoahs? How during the many centuries of 
Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Greco-Macedonian rule? These questions 
involve much that is interesting, yet somewhat obscure. The history of 
the tenantry of this great bear-field during these four dominations is un- 
written. Could its seas, its lakes, marshes and rivers; its mountains, val- 
leys, plains and deserts pen minutely their modes of life and action 
through the night and day dreams of these traditional ages, no records 
would be perused with greater interest, since they would contain the orig- 
inal histories of all the nations of Europe, and the western world. 

Asia is called the cradle of the human race. Man, however, is sup- 
posed to have been formed in southwestern Asia. It is certain that Adam 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 171 

was created out of the Garden of Eden; north of it perhaps; how far 
north is simply conjecture. We can reckon, however, two very remark- 
able national hives : the younger one in Germany, in Europe ; the other, 
and by many centuries the senior, in Central Asia. The one in Asia is 
very generally conceded to be the mother hive, though some ethnologists 
hold to a trinity of original centers. 

What now concerns us is to locate the center of the Aryan family of 
nations, called Indo-European or Id do-Germanic. There are now two cen- 
ters, an eastern and a western. Centers wide apart : the one including all 
the European nationalities, except the Turks, Magyars, the Fins and Lapps ; 
the other including the inhabitants of Armenia, of Asia. 

From the analogy existing between the modern Hindoo Sanscrit, Zend 
(the ancient Persian) the Greek, Latin, the mother of Italian, French, 
Spanish, Portuguese, and Wallachian, Celtic, Gothic, or Germanic or Tu- 
tonic, including English and Scandinavian, and the Slavonic, including 
Russia, and a part of Austria, we conclude that those nations have one 
common origin. They are sister languages. Neither one can claim to be 
the parent. They are the daughters of one mother. What is the mother 
language ? What is the mother nation ? These are problems yet to be 
solved. The earth's original formation can be traced in her strata. Re- 
moving the strata, the aquious deposits, we can say, such was the original 
earth. These strata are later growths, each containing its appropriate 
fauna and flora. We thus gain, by an examination of the fossils of each 
strata, a history of the earth's formation. Its fossils are the record of 
earth's formation. So we, by the tracing of languages gain a knowledge of 
man's past history. 

" Now languages are to the ethnologist what strata are in geology ; 
dead languages are its fossils, and petrifactions. By skillful interpretation 
of their indications, aided by the light of other available monuments, he 
is able to spell out, with more or less probability, the ethnical records of 
the past, and thus obtain a glimpse here and there into the gray cloud that 
rests over the dawn of the ages." 

These languages, having a common origin, seem to have their focus in 
central Asia, east of the Caspian sea, and north of the chain of mountains 
called Hindu Kush, and Paropamisan. Such appears to be the located 
home of this mother language, and, consequently of the mother nation 
that used it. There she dwelt alone, anterior to all European history, or 
before the Siberian deserts had received any human footprint. The first 
colony that entered Europe from that radiating center we may call Lapps, 
the second Kimmerians or Kelts, the third were the Scythians, Goths or 
Germans, the fourth and last were the Slavonians. The Lapps did not 
radiate from the Aryan center, but from a more northern point, perhaps 
the Mongolian, or Japhetian. From the Aryan center the radiations were 
principally east and west. 

At a point that dates back of authentic profane history, this mother 
amily broke up, part passing through Hindu Kush into the valley of the 



172 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Ganges ; while the rest settled in Persia and became the Medes and Per- 
sians of history. 

Whence the name Aryan ? In the Sanscrit writings of early date, the 
Hindus called themselves Aryans : " and the name is preserved in the 
classic Arii, a tribe of ancient Persia. Aria, the modern Herat and Ariana, 
the name of a district comprehending the greater part of ancient Persia, 
and extended by some so as to embrace Bactriana, Ariana or Airyana, is 
evidently an old Persian word, preserved in the modern native name of 
Persia, Airan, or Iran. Arya, in Sanscrit, signifies "excellent," "honor- 
able," being allied probably to the Greek ari (stos) the best. Others con- 
nect it with the root ar (Lat. arari, to plough), as if to distinguish a people 
who were tillers (earers) of earth, from the purely nomadic Turanian or 
Turks. 

Of this assumed Aryan mother-nation Max Muller says of the undi- 
vided Aryan family : " It should be observed that most of the terms con- 
nected with chase and warfare differ in each of the Aryan dialects, while 
words connected with more peaceful occupation belong generally to the 
common heirloom of the Aryan language. The proper appreciation of this 
fact, in its general bearing will show how a similar remark made by Nie- 
buhr, with regard to Greek and Latin, requires a very different explana- 
tion from that which that great scholar, from his more restricted point of 
view, was able to give it. It will show that all the Aryan nations had led 
a long life of peace before they separated, and that their language acquired 
individuality and nationality as each colony started in search of new 
homes — new generations forming new terms connected with the warlike 
and adventurous life of their onward migrations. 

Hence it is that not only Greek and Latin, but all Aryan languages 
have their peaceful words in common, and hence it is that they all differ 
so strangely in their warlike expressions. Thus the domestic animals are 
generally known by the same name in England and in India; while the 
wild beasts have different names even in Greek and Latin. They were a 
pastoral people and cultivated their lands, made cloth, and used the 
various metals. 

The Aryan families has sent their colonies into the field of Asiatic and 
European Russia. They spread at an early date through the southern 
provinces of Asiatic Russia. The Turanian family of languages is chief 
of Asiatic Russia. It includes all the languages spoken in Europe and in 
Asia, not included in the Aryan and Shemitic families, except the Chinese 
and its cognate dialects. 

The Shemitic family of languages is the third great family of lan- 
guages spoken by tenants occupying the Russian field. And here let it be 
distinctly observed : that the character of the Russian empire is involvjed 
very intimately in the history of the tribal elements of this field from the 
days that the sons of Japheth first entered its Asiatic territory, B. C. 100, 
to A. D. 872, when by the drawing of the national curtain, the Russian 
first appeared upon the stage of human action ; since from these tribal 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 173 

elements it derives the distinctive features of its character, moral, social 
and national. 

We shall examine those tribal elements under the following general 
heads : 

1. Under the patriarchs, to the rise of the Babylonian empire. 

2. During the Babylonian empire. 

3. Under the Medo-Persian empire. 

4. Under the Greco-Macedonian monarchy. 

5. Under the pure Roman dynasty. 

6. Under the Romano-German dynasty till the Russian himself be- 
came an actor on the theatre of empires. 

This course of investigation will allow us to trace the various families 
as they enter and occupy the various portions of this great field of northern 
Asia and Europe, till the elements that form Russian character and Rus- 
sian domination, are fully gathered and ready for a perfect development. 
It will be seen by this elementary investigation, that the Russian is an 
extraordinary man, in the possession of an extraordinary empire — that he 
is a man in whose veins flows the life-giving blood of one hundred tribal 
nations speaking forty different languages. 

1. Russian field, its occupants from its division under the sons of 
Japheth to the rise of the Babylonian empire. What people occupied 
Russian Asia and Europe during this early and protracted age ? We might 
as well call this period the patriarchal age, since they occupied its middle 
division. For the history of this period we must look to sacred history 
since no profane historian whose works have come down to us lived near 
the days of Moses. 

Herodotus, of Halicarnassus, father of Grecian history, was contem- 
porary with Nehemiah. Herodotus wrote a sketch of ancient nations. 
Among these we find the Scythians. No very distinct idea of the location 
of Scythia can be gathered from this author, only that the Scythians 
described by him were dwelling in southeastern Europe, and were a people 
that in many particulars resembled the Israelites. 

Anach arsis, a Scythian philosopher, lived in the days of Ezekiel, B. C. 
574, 146 years after the beginning of the captivity of the ten tribes ; hence 
about the close of our first historical period of the Russian field. Who 
were these Scythians? What part of this Russian territory did they oc- 
cupy? Scythian, by the Greeks, was a nomad, a tramp; one that moved 
from place to place, in quest of food, or for purposes of plunder. 

We have before us an ancient map of Asiatic Russia, or Siberia, from 
Siber, one of its ancient towns. On that map we find, in the southern part 
of Siberia, an immense tract called Scythia within Imaus, and Scythia be- 
yond Imaus. It includes the modern Turkestan, divided into eastern and 
western by Mount Imaus, or the modern Hindu Kush. The Persians call 
it Turan, it being north of Iran. 

It is remarkable that Iran and Turan should have contained the two 
great national hives, the Aryan and the Turanian, whose languages are so 
widely diffused among the northern and western nations of the earth. 



174 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

There were, at a more recent date, two Scythias ; the ancient Scy thia 
including Turkestan, and the unknown regions north of that territory 
now called Siberia. In after years a colony from the mother country went 
westward, and, for a time settled in southeastern Europe, between the Don 
and Danube, taking their mother name of Scythia. These were the Scy- 
thians described by Justin, a notice of which will appear under a more 
recent historic date. 

Following out our suggestion of a very ancient, and a more recent 
Scythia, we shall confine our remarks for the present to another country. 

Under that may be reckoned all the ancient nomadic or wandering 
families, that, for more liberty, or for plunder, wandered from the south- 
western to the more northern parts of Asia. All families, from a very 
early date, seem to have evolved two opposite elements of character, the 
fixed and the wandering. The former class cultivating the soul, erecting 
towns and cities, and developing the arts and sciences, and perfecting every 
branch of civilization and refinement ; the latter, nomadic, keeping flocks 
and herds, dwelling in tents, and removing from place to place as the im- 
mediate wants of their living property might demand. The two classes 
soon inherit the names of civilized and barbarous. The Scythian was the 
nomadic or barbarous, while the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Grecians 
and Romans, the founders of empires, belonged to the class of civilization. 

A mixed multitude early sought new abodes in the wilds of the north. 
Looking with contempt upon the occupations and refinement of cities and 
fixed habitations, with their wives and children, flocks and herds, they 
took their journey northward, beyond the belt of empires, into what is 
now called Russian or Siberian Asia. Each family selected its own district 
and grew up into a tribal nation, removing from place to place as necessity 
required. When too numerous for the natural resources of the land, colo- 
nies journeyed further north or west. 

Such is the theory of the gradual occupation of the earth by the sons 
of Noah after the flood. The posterity of Japheth, as we stated, first en- 
tered the field of Asiatic Russia, as soon, at least, B. C. 2100. There is no 
intimation in history, that they ever abandoned that northern field. They 
gave their names to the districts where they dwelt, which severally 
adhere to these countries, even to the present time. We, therefore, reckon 
their posterity among the first tenants, and an original element of Russian 
character. Other families followed them into the great arctic belt, or, at 
least, into what now belongs to the Russian empire. Among these were 
families of the Hebrews. 

Let us now follow the sacred narrative. The line of the genealogy of 
the one seed continued to occupy southwestern Asia. Even during the 70 
years' captivity they did not wander beyond the limits of the Babylonian 
empire. They continued, principally, within easy range of their beloved 
city. But the families, more distant from the one seed, and especially the 
multitudinous seed, were compelled to take a wider range. This thought 
began its development in the sons of Judah. The circumstances are re- 
corded in Gen. xxxviii. 30, "And afterward came out his brother that had 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 175 

he scarlet thread upon his hand; and his name was called Zera." Being 
supplanted in his birth, he, with his whole family, (five sons) became a 
wanderer, or, since wanderer means Scythe, he became a Scythian. Let us 
trace their history. Where did they make their journey? They went 
eastward, gathering with them from ail the tribes such as desired to follow 
with their flocks, a nomadic life. "And they found fat pastures and good; 
and the land (was) wide, and quiet, and peaceful ; for (they) of Ham (when 
going south) had dwelt there of old." 1 Ch. ii. 40, The sons of Reuben 
went east. "And eastward he inhabited unto the entering in of the wilder- 
ness from the river Euphrates; because their cattle were multiplied in the 
land of Gilead." 1 Ch. v. 9. 

The captivity of the ten tribes planted them among the cities of the 
Medes, and beyond. These colonies, increasing, spread over the whole 
country north of Persia. The country taking the name of these nomadic 
tribes was called Scythia. Here a new family, Shemitic, grows up, and 
occupies the south of what, in after ages, was to be the Asiatic division of 
the Russian field. These nomadic colonies increased wonderfully, and, re- 
quiring more room for their flocks and herds, spread north, east, and to- 
wards the far west. 

It appears, hence, that these ancient tenants of the Russian field, were 
Japhetic and Shemitic. The mingling of these two families gave birth to 
a new race, which, as the blood became further mingled and crossed, pro- 
duced all the species that ancient history describes. The most noted events 
of this period, was the Shemitic colonization of the Russian field, and the 
captivity of the ten tribes. These Shemitic movements north and west 
appear to be the incipient unfoldings of the divine plan to produce the 
" multitudinous seed," a seed that should possess the moral elements of 
Shem with the intellectual elements of Japheth. It marks the beginning 
of that era, noted for God's blessings on Shem, and his enlargement on 
Japheth, by dwelling in the tents of Shem. See Gen. ix. 27. 

The second period of the occupation of this great northern field was 
occupied by the Babylonian empire. 

This period was distinguished by the 70 years' captivity of Judah. 
They were scattered through the 127 provinces of that empire. During 
the Babylonian supremacy we hear but little of the nomadic tribes of the 
north. The continued increase and spread of those tribes must have been 
going on as appears from their western abodes under the reign of the Per- 
sian empire. The two tribes mostly remained in the provinces of the 
Babylonian empire, after the conquest of that empire by Cyrus. Only a 
few accepted Cyrus' generous ofier. The masses of the twelve tribes re- 
mained in the countries of their captivities. Not being confined to any 
definite locality in the north, they continued to be wanderers (Scythians), 
till they are reported to be dwelling in southwestern Europe as Scythians. 

3. The North under the Medo-Persian Empire. — Under that empire 
the tribal kingdoms of the great north begin to appear, for the purpose of 
finding some favorable clime in the zone of empires. During this period 
the Scythians had settled between the Danube and the Don. They had 



176 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

reached that locality long before the fall of Babylon, since they had a 
strong nationality, during the supremacy of the Persian empire. We have 
their character and manners given by Justin, a distinguished writer, who is 
quoted by Rollin in his ancient history, since, in those early days, little 
was seen of those tribal kingdoms which occupied the regions north of the 
imperial zone, whenever the veil was lifted, and a tribe marched forth to 
break through those sacred boundaries, their character and acts elicited 
great interest. Such were the Scythians that rushed into the Persian em- 
pire in the 7th century before Christ, Of the Scythian family Sharon 
Turner thus writes : 

" The next stream of barbaric tribe (after the Kimmerian and Keltic 
races) whose progress formed the second great influx of population into 
Europe, were the Scythian, German and Gothic tribes. They also entered 
it out of Asia, It is of importance to recollect the fact of their primeval 
locality, because it corresponds with this circumstance, that Herodotus, be- 
sides the main Scythia, which he .places in Europe, mentions also an East- 
ern or Asiatic Scythia, beyond the Caspian and Jaxartes. As these new 
comers pressed on the Kimmerians and the Kelts, their predecessors, those 
nations retired towards the western and southern extremities of Europe, 
pursued still by the Scythian invaders. This new wave of population 
gradually spread over the mountains, and into the vast forests and marshes 
of Europe, until, under the name of Germans, an appellation which Taci- 
tus calls a recent name, they had not only reached the Rhine, but had also 
crossed into France. Here Cassar found one great body firmly settled, de- 
scended from them, whom he calls Belgae ; though its component states had 
their peculiar denomination, besides a very large force of recent German 
invaders, under the command of Ariovistus. (Pinkerton says that the 
German, Scythian and Gothic nations were the same generic family). 
This second stock of the European population is peculiarly interesting to 
us, because from its branches not only our own immediate ancestors 
(Saxon), but also those of the most celebrated nations of modern Europe, 
have unquestionably descended. The Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scotch, Nor- 
mans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Dutch, Belgians Lombards 
and Franks, have all sprung from that great fountain of the human race, 
which we have distinguished by the terms Scythian, German or Gothic. 

The first appearance of the Scythian tribes in Europe may be placed, 
according to Strabo and Homer, about the eighth, or according to Hero- 
dotus, in the seventh century before the Christian era, Herodotus likewise 
states that the Scythians declared their nation to be more recent than any 
other, and that they reckoned only one thousand years between Targitaos, 
their first king, and the aggression of Darius, (This would extend to B. C, 
1700 about the time many families of Hebrews wandered away north and 
founded the nation of Asiatic Scythia. — W.) The first scenes (Turner 
continues) of their civil existence, and of their progressive power, were in 
Asia, to the east of the Araxes. Here they multiplied and extended their 
territorial limits, for some centuries, unknown to Europe, Their general 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 



177 



appellation among themselves was Scoloti, but the Greeks called them 
Scythians, Scuthoi, or Nomades. 

Diodorus says : " The Scythians, formerly inconsiderable and few, 
possessed a narrow region on the Araxes ; but by degrees they became more 
powerful in numbers and in courage. They extended their boundaries on 
all sides ; till at last they raised their nation to great empire and glory. 
One of their kings becoming valiant and skillful in the art of war, they 
added to their territory the mountainous regions about Caucasus, and also 
the plains towards the ocean, and the Palus Mseotis, with the other regions 
near the Tanais (Don). Thus the nation increased, and had kings worthy 
of remembrance. The Sakai, the Massagetai, and the Arimaspoi, drew 
their origin from them." 

The Massagetai seem to have been the most eastern branch of the 
Scythian nation. Wars arising between them and the other Scythian 
tribes, an emigration from the latter took place, according to the account 
which Herodotus accepts as the most authentic, which occasioned their en- 
trance into Europe. Such feuds and wars have contributed, more than any 
other cause, to disperse through the world its uncivilized inhabitants. 

The emigrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and, 
invading the Kimmerians, suddenly appeared in Europe, in the seventh 
century before the Christian era. Part of the Kimmerians flying into Asia 
Minor, some of the Scythian hordes pursued them ; but, turning in a di- 
rection different from that which the Kimmerians traversed, they missed 
their intended prey, and fell unintentionally upon the Medes. They de- 
feated the Medes, pressed on towards Egypt, and governed those parts of 
Asia for twenty-eight years, till Cyaxares, the king of Media, at last ex- 
pelled them. 

The Scythian tribes, however, continued to flock into Europe ; and in 
the reign of Darius (one hundred and twenty years later — W.) their 
European colonies were sufliciently numerous and celebrated to excite the 
ambition of the Persian Monarch, after his capture of Babylon ; but all his 
efforts against them failed." They spread over Europe, from the Roxolani, 
in the cold north, to the Getse, and Goths. They were known to the Ro- 
mans under the name of Germans. The Kimmerians and Kelts retired be- 
fore them to western Europe. 

WHO WERE THE SCYTHIANS ATTACKED BY DARIUS, THE MEDE ? 

They formed the second, the Gothic or German emigration into 
Europe from Central Asia. Whence came they into Central Asia? Prin- 
cipally from the land of the Hebrews, through very early family wander- 
ings for the accommodation of their flocks and herds. The lands of As- 
syria, Media and Persia being pre-occupied, they would be forced into the 
more northern fields. That these European Scythians were previously 
Asiatic Scythians from the nomadic elements of the tribes of Israel, who 
had occupied the country east and north of the Caspian Sea for a thou- 
sand years and had gradually spread from that Asiatic centre into eastern 
12 



178 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Europe, will appear not only from the historic records already given, but 
they will be identified as parts of that Shemitic family by an examination 
of their manners and customs. The sketch we take from RoUin's Ancient 
History of the Scythian morals, manners and customs at the time of their 
invasion by Darius. 

Babylon having been taken (B. C. 538 to 514), Darius (Cyaxares, son 
of Astyages, king of Media, and maternal uncle to Cyrus, Astyages being 
the Ahasuerus of the Bible) prepared to make war with the Scythians who 
dwelt between the rivers Don and the Danube. The occasion of the war 
was the invasion of Media by the Scythians one hundred and twenty years 
before. During this raid of the Scythians, which continued twenty-eight 
years, the Scythians' wives married their slaves. " When the husbands 
were on their return home these slaves went out to meet them with a 
numerous army and disputed their entrance into their country. After 
some battles fought with nearly equal loss on both sides, the masters con- 
sidering that it was doing too much honor to their slaves to put them upon 
the footing of soldiers, marched against them in the next encounter with 
whips in their hands to make them remember their proper condition. 
This stratagem had the intended effect : for not being able to bear the sight 
of their masters thus armed, they all ran away." — Rollin, We have intro- 
duced this circumstance 1. To illustrate the kind of servitude then ex- 
isting. 2. To show the first germs of Russian serfdom ; and 3. Also to en- 
able the philosophical reader to discern its analogy to the Hebrew slavery 
and thus demonstrate the origin of these Scythians. 

Being composed of families from all the tribes we should expect to find 
a great variety in character. While speaking of Scythian servitude, an 
element of the curse on Ham's posterity, should be noticed. It is said of 
Shem, "And Canaan shall be his servant;" and of Japheth, "And Canaan 
shall be his servant." Gen. ix. 26, 27. That servitude has adhered to the 
posterity wherever there has been any mixture of the three races. Much 
of the ancient slavery among earth's great monarchs was of that kind. 
Europeans, in this manner, became more or less tainted as to their blood, 
though not sufficient, perhaps, to constitute a visible admixture. Hamitic 
blood, in this way, has been introduced into the veins of the Russian. 

The manners of the European Scythians as given by Justin are as fol- 
lows : (the extracts are from Rollin), " The Scythians lived in great inno- 
cence and simplicity. They did not make any divisions of their lands 
amongst themselves ; it would have been in vain to do it, since they did 
not apply themselves to cultivate them. Horace says that some did culti- 
vate spots for one year. They had no houses nor settled habitation, but 
wandered continually with their cattle and their flocks from country to 
country. Their wives and children they carried along with them in 
wagons covered with the skins of beasts, which were all the houses they 
had to dwell in. Justice was observed and maintained amongst them 
through the natural temper and disposition of the people, and not by any 
compulsion of laws, with which they were wholly unacquainted. No crime 
was more severely punished among them than theft ; and that with good 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 179 

reason. For their herds and flocks, in which all their riches consisted, be- 
ing never shut up, how could they subsist if theft had not been most rigor- 
ously punished ? They coveted neither silver nor gold, like the rest of 
mankind, and made milk and honey their principal diet. . They were 
strangers to the use of linen and woolen manufactures, and to defend them- 
selves from the violent and continual cold of their climate, they made use 
of nothing but the skins of beasts. 

I said before that these manners of the Scythians might appear to some 
people very wild and savage. And indeed, what can be said of a nation 
that has lands and yet does not cultivate them, that has herds of cattle, of 
which they content themselves with eating the milk and neglect the flesh ? 
The wool of the sheep might suppl}' them with warm and comfortable 
clothes, and yet they use no other raiment than the skins of animals. But 
that which is the greatest demonstration of their ignorance and savage- 
ness, according to the general opinion of mankind, is their utter neglect of 
gold and silver, which have always been had in such high request in all 
civilized nations. 

But this contempt of all convenience of life was attended with such 
an honesty and uprightness of manners as hindered them from ever covet- 
ing their neighbors' goods. For the desire of riches can only take place 
where riches can be made use of. And would to God we could see the same 
moderation prevail among the rest of mankind, and the like indifierence to 
the goods of other people ! The world would not then have seen wars per- 
petually succeeding one another in all ages, and in all countries : nor 
would the number of those that fall by the sword exceed that of those who 
fall by the irreversible decree and law of nature. 

It is a surprising thing that a happy natural disposition, without the 
assistance of education, should have inspired the Scythian with such a 
wisdom and moderation as the Grecians could not attain to, neither by the 
institutions of their legislatures nor the rules and precepts of all their 
philosophers ; and that the manners of a barbarous nation should be pre- 
ferable to those of a people so much improved and refined by the polite 
arts and sciences. So much more happy efiects were produced by the 
ignorance of vice in the one, than by the knowledge of virtue in the 
other." Thus speaks Justin a Roman historian, who flourished about the 
3d century of our era. 

Rollin remarks : The Scythian fathers thought, with good reason, 
that they left their children a valuable inheritance when they left them in 
peace and union with one another. One of their kings, whose name was 
Scylurus, finding himself drawing near his end, sent for all his children, 
and giving to each of them one after another a bundle of arrows tied fast 
together desired them to break them. Each used his endeavors, but was 
not able to do it. Then untying the bundle and giving them the arrows 
one by one, they were very easily broken. Let this image, says the father, 
be a lesson to you of the mighty advantage that results from union and 
concord. In order to strengthen and enlarge these domestic advantages, 
the Scythians used to admit their friends into the same terms of union 



180 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

with them as their relations. Friendship was considered by them as a 
sacred and inviolable alliance, which differed but little from that which 
nature has put between brethren, and which they could not infringe with- 
out being guilty of a heinous crime. 

Ancient authors seem to have vied with each other who should most 
extol the innocence of manners that reigned among the Scythians, by 
magnificent encomiums. Horace's is translated by Rollin (Francis), and 
is as follows: 

" Happier the Scythians houseless train ! 

Who roll their vagrant dwellings o'er the plain ; 

Happier the Getes, fierce and brave, 

Whom no fix'd laws of property enslave ; 

While open stands the golden grain, 

The free born fruitage of th' unbounded plain, 

Succeeding yearly to the toi), 

They plough with equal tasks the public soil. 

Not there the guiltless stepdame knows 

The baleful draught for orphans to compose ; 

No wife high-portioned rules her spouse, 

Or trusts her essenced lover's faithless vows; 

The lovers there for dowry claim 

The parent's virtues; and the plighted dame 

Dares not to break the nuptial tie, 

Polluted crime ! Whose portion is to die." 

— Francis. 

When we consider the manners and character of the Scythians with- 
out prejudice, can we possibly forbear to look upon them with esteem and 
admiration ? Does not their manner of living, as to the exterior part of 
it at least, bear a resemblance to that of the patriarchs, who had no fixed 
habitation ; who did not till the ground ; who had no other occupation 
than that of feeding their flocks and herds; and who dwelt in tents? Can 
we believe this people were much to be pitied for not understanding, or 
rather for despising, the use of gold and silver? What advantage could 
gold or silver be to the Scythians, who valued nothing but what the neces- 
sities of men actually require, and who took care to set narrow bounds to 
these necessities ? 

It is no wonder that, living as they did, without houses, they should 
make no account of those arts that were so highly valued in other places, 
as architecture, sculpture and painting, or that they should despise fine 
cloths and costly furniture, since they found the skins of beasts sufficient 
to defend them against the inclemency of the seasons. After all, can we 
truly say that these pretended advantages contribute to the real happiness 
of life ? Were those nations that had them in the greatest plenty, more 
healthful or robust than the Scythians? Did they live to a greater age 
than they? Or did they spend their lives in greater freedom and tran- 
quility ? or a greater exemption from cares and troubles ? Let us acknowl- 
edge, to the shame of ancient philosophy, that the Scythians, who did not 
particularly apply themselves to the study of wisdom, carried it, however, 
to a greater height in their practice, than either the Egyptians, Grecians, 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 181 

or any other civilized nation. They did not give the name of goods or 
riches to anything but what, humanly speaking, truly deserved that title ; 
as health, strength, courage, the love of labor and liberty, innocence of life, 
sincerity, an abhorrence of all fraud and dissimulation, and, in a word, all 
such qualities as render a man more virtuous and more valuable. If to 
these happy dispositions, we could add the knowledge and love of the true 
God and of our Redeemer, without which the most exalted virtues are of 
no value, they would have been a perfect people. 

When we compare the manners of the Scythians with those of the 
present age, we are tempted to believe that the pencils which drew so beau- 
tiful a picture, were not free from partiality and flattery, and that both 
Justin and Horace have decked them with virtues that did not belong to 
them. But all antiquity agrees in giving the same testimony of them ; 
and Homer in particular, whose opinion ought to be of great weight, calls 
them " The most just and upright of men." — Rollin. 

Yet these Scythians did become corrupted by Roman luxuries, so that 
their manners, in the days of the apostles, had been so changed by their 
constant intercourse with the more refined, that they had taken a low 
position in heathen morals. 

Strabo, a Greek philosopher, geographer, and historian who wrote in 
the days of Augustus and Tiberius, thus writes, " One would think that 
the natural effect of such an intercourse (which he had described) with 
civilized and polite nations would only have been that of rendering them 
more humanized and courteous, by softening that air of savageness and 
ferocity, which they had before; but instead of that, it introduced a total 
ruin of their ancient manners and transformed them into quite different 
creatures. Our example has perverted almost all the nations of the world : 
by carrying the refinements of luxury and pleasure amongst them, we have 
taught them insincerity and fraud, and a thousand kinds of shameful and 
infamous arts to get money. It is a miserable talent, and a very unhappy 
distinction for a nation through its ingenuity in inventing modes, and re- 
fining upon everything that tends to nourish and promote luxury, to be- 
come the corrupter of all its neighbors and the author, as it were, of their 
vices and debauchery." 

We have now finished our sketch of Scythian manners at periods 
about six centuries apart. The Scythians of pure manners lived about six 
hundred years before Christ in the days of the Babylonian and Persian 
empires. That nation was corrupted by the Grecian and Roman luxuries. 
Where came they that they should have such pure manners when first in- 
troduced to the world of refinement? Those that desire to possess the key 
to the chronological developments of the nations of modern Europe, 
especially that of Russia, Germany, France and England, would do well to 
study the history of this Scythian family. Of these European Scythians 
it is sufficient for us at present to remark (1) that they had the character, 
manners and customs of their Asiatic mother who dwelt in what is now 
Turkestan, which belongs principally to the Russian empire. (2) The 
Asiatic Scythians of Central Asia came from southwestern Asia and were 



182 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

composed of Nomadic families of Hebrews. (3) These European Scyth- 
ians, principally of the ten tribes pushed northward, entered Scandinavia, 
(Norway and Sweden, W) drove back its early inhabitants, the Lapps, 
and took possession of that northern peninsula which they have occupied 
till the present time. (4) The reader, will, therefore, bear in mind that 
the Scandinavians were Scythians, Goths, or Germans, (North men) whose 
ancestral homes were (a) southeastern Europe ; (b) Central Asia; (c) south- 
western Asia ; (d) of the ten tribes. During the domination of the Medo- 
Persian empire, these nomadic tribes increase towards the northwest and 
south. 

4. The Russian Field under the Greco-Macedonian empire. — The long 
night and day dawn of the great northern bear field has but little history. 
Now and then some unknown tribal nation rushes down from the icy 
north upon the imperial cordon in quest of plunder or some more genial 
clime, but is soon obliged to retire into its own native wilds. 

The period now under review is quite barren of historical incidents. 
The Scythians appear again under the reign of Alexander the Great, B. C. 
330, about 176 years after the invasion of their European country by 
Darius. It is remarkable that Alexander should begin his conquests by 
subjugating the southern part of European Scythia, the daughter, and that 
some years later in the zenith of his glory he should conquer the south- 
eastern portion of Asiatic Scythia, the mother, with which family he was 
joined in marriage. The history of those extraordinary events we shall 
briefly narrate. 

On the death of Philip, those Scythian tribes that had been held in 
subjection by his father, rebelled. Alexander was advised " to soothe " 
these first glimmerings of revolt and innovation by prudent reserve, com- 
placency and insinuations. 

To these timorous counsels Alexander gave no attention, but gather- 
ing his forces marched against them with all possible expedition. He 
moved north to the banks of the Danube, which he passed over in one 
night. He defeated the king of the Triballi in a great battle, made the 
Gete fly at his approach ; subdued several barbarous nations, some by the 
terror of his name, and others by force of arms, and notwithstanding the 
arrogant answer of their ambassadors, he taught them to dread a danger 
still more near them than the falling of the sky and planets. Alexander 
imagining that his name alone had struck this people with terror asked 
their ambassadors what things they dreaded most ? They replied with a 
haughty tone of voice that they were afraid of nothing but the falling of 
the sky and stars. In this answer we can see a race that had been 
taught to fear God only. 

After the conquest of the Persian empire Alexander moved his army 
to the north and east and impelled forward by some supernatural agency, 
B. C. 328. Sogdiana and Bactrina were subdued three times, having re- 
belled twice. In these battles and sieges Alexander lost about one hundred 
and twenty thousand men. These two kingdoms were located between the 
rivers Oxus (Gihon) on the south and Jaxartes (Sihon) on the north. The 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 183 

Jaxartes divided those provinces from Scythia. These three countries were 
inherited by the same race. They were all nomadic or Scythian tribes of 
the Hebrew family and therefore Shemitic. They wandered into those 
ports under the Assyrian empire. They increased and sent colonies into 
Europe, forming European Scythia; becoming in Europe so powerful that 
they drove the Kimmerians (a part of them) out of Europe. They were 
still marching in pursuit of them into Asia under their king, Madyes, 
when the Kimmerians found means to escape from the Scythians. The 
Scythian army advanced as far as Media ; had a great battle with Cyaxares 
I., and defeating him overran all southwestern Asia and advanced towards 
Egypt. Being diverted by presents from the land of the Pharaohs, they 
marched through Palestine. Some of the Scythians settled at Bethshean,a 
city in the tribe of Manasseh on this side of Jordan, which from them was 
afterwards called Scythopolis, B. C. 635. These countries they held and 
devastated for twenty-eight years. It was about three centuries later that 
Asiatic Scj'thia was invaded, but only one hundred and twenty years later 
that Darius invaded European Scythia, and only about four or five years 
previous that Alexander had subdued the southern tribes of the Scythians 
in Europe. We have only the Scythians to notice as occupants of the Rus- 
sian field along the southern limits during the Greco-Macedonian period. 
It now remains that we present some items further relative to Alexander's 
Asiatic Scythian conquests. When Persia was overthrown Alexander's 
divine mission came to an end. He was commissioned to liberate the HTe- 
brew race, not to reduce them to servitude. Hence, in that work, he lost 
vastly more of his army than in the overthrow of the Persian empire. In 
the battles of Granicus, Issus and Arbela — (Gamela W) Alexander was 
simply the visible agent of Jehovah. From the fall of the Persian empire 
till the death of Alexander his acts were those of a rash conquerer. That 
he was at first an agent to accomplish a certain work appears from prophetic 
history. "And as I was considering, behold a he goat came from the west 
on the whole earth and touched (none touched him in the earth) not the 
ground : and the goat (had) a notable horn between his eyes (of sight). 
And he came to the ram that had (two) horns, which I had seen standing 
before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw 
him come close to the ram, and he was moved with choler against him and 
smote the ram, and brake his two horns : and there was no power in the 
ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped 
upon him : and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand, 
therefore, the he goat waxed very great : and when he was strong, the great 
horn was broken, and for it came up four notable ones toward the four 
winds of heaven." Dan. viii. 5, 6, 7, 8. 

The explanation is in verses 20, 21 and 22. " The ram which thou 
sawest having (two) horns (are) the kings of Media and Persia. And the 
rough goat is the king (kingdom W) of Grecia : and the great horn that is 
between his eyes (is) the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four 
stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in 
his power." 



184 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The divine hand was seen in Alexander's visit to Jerusalem after his 
overthrow of Tyre. To this imminent danger, Jaddus, the high priest, who 
governed under the Persians, seeing himself exposed, with all the inhabi- 
tants, to the wrath of the conqueror, had recourse to the protection of the 
Almighty, gave orders that public prayers should be made to implore His 
assistance, and offered sacrifices. The night after God appeared to him in 
a dream, and bid him " To cause flowers to be scattered up and down the 
city; to set open all the gates, and go clothed in his pontifical robes, 
with all the priests dressed also in their vestments, and all the rest 
clothed in white, to meet Alexander, and not fear any evil from that king, 
inasmuch as he would protect them." 

This command was punctually obeyed ; and accordingly this august 
procession, the very day after, marched out of the city to an eminence 
called Sapha (to discover from afar), whence there was a view of all the 
plain, as well as of the temple, and city of Jerusalem. Here the whole 
procession waited for the arrival of Alexander. 

The Syrians and Phoenicians, who were in his army, were persuaded 
that the wrath of this prince was so great that he would certainly punish 
the high priest in an exemplary manner, and destroy that city in the same 
manner as he had done Tyre; and flushed with joy on that account, they 
waited in expectation of glutting their eyes with the calamities of a people 
to whom they bore a mortal hatred. As soon as the Jews heard of the 
king's approach, they set out to meet him with all the pomp before de, 
scribed. Alexander was struck at the sight of the high priest, in whose 
mitre and forehead a golden plate was fixed on which the name of God was 
written. The moment the king perceived the higii priest, he advanced 
toward him with the air of the most profound respect, bowed his body, 
and adored the august name upon his front, and saluted him who wore 
it with a religious veneration. Then the Jews surrounding Alexander 
raised their voices to wish him every kind of prosperity. All the specta- 
tors were seized with inexpressible surprise ; they could not account for a 
sight contrary to their expectation and so very improbable. 

Parmenio, who could not yet recover from his astonishment, asked the 
king how it came to pass that he, who was adored by every one, adored 
the high priest of the Jews. " I do not," replied Alexander, " adore the 
high priest, but the God whose minister he is; for whilst I was at Dium 
in Macedonia, (my mind wholly fixed on the great design of the Persian 
war) as I was revolving by what means I should conquer Asia, this very 
man, dressed in the same robes, appeared to me in a dream, exhorted me to 
banish every fear, bid me cross the Hellespont boldly ; and assured me that 
his God would march at the head of my army, and give me the victory 
over that of the Persians." Alexander added, " that the instant he saw 
this priest, he knew him by his habit, his stature, his air, his face, to be the 
same person whom he had seen at Dium ; that he was firmly persuaded it 
was by the command, and under the immediate conduct of heaven that 
he had undertaken this war; that he was sure he should overcome Darius 
hereafter and destroy the empire of the Persians; and that this was the 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 185 

reason why he adored this God in the person of his priest." Alexander, 
after having thus answered Parmenio, embraced the high priest and all his 
brethren, then walking in the midst of them, he arrived at Jerusalem, 
where he offered sacrifices to God in the temple, after the manner pre- 
scribed to him by the high priest. 

The high priest, afterwards, showed him those passages in the prophecy 
of Daniel, which are spoken of that monarch. — Rollin. 

The overthrow of Tyre and the Persian empire were the limits of 
Alexander's divine commission. These accomplished, he should have been 
satisfied; but fortune first smiled, then ruined. That Alexander was in- 
vincible till his mission ran out, will appear from the results of the three 
Persian battles. At the battle of Granicus Alexander lost 85 horse and 30 
men ; while the Persian loss was 20,000 foot, and 2,500 horse. At Issus, 
Alexander is said to have lost 300 foot and 150 horse ; the Persian loss be- 
ing 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse. At Arbela, Alexander's loss was about 
1,200, mostly horse, while the Persian loss was about 300,000, besides 
prisoners. 

This inequality of loss clearly domonstrates divine protection. By 
means of Alexander's success there was secured a very great admixture of 
Grecian blood and language among those national tribes, who were in time 
to be the readers of, and believers in the gospel of the Son of God, first 
circulated in Greek. 

Alexander's conquests north and east of the Persian empire, in Bac- 
triana, Sogdiana, Scythia, and in India, were wasteful of human life, and 
without any very marked results. His occupation of Bactriana, Sogdiana 
and Scythia, are not without some historic interest connected with our 
present subject. North of Sogdiana and Bactriana, was Scythia, extend- 
ing far into the unknown regions of the north. The Jaxartes (Sihon) was 
the dividing line. Alexander prepared to cross that river in the face of a 
large Scythian force. Before he was prepared to pass over that rapid river, 
he was visited by 20 Scythian ambassadors. That visit, and the speech of 
its chief ambassador, reveal too much of the Scythian character not to 
have special notice. Some of the items as narrated by Quintus Curtius, 
the historian, we give below, and are as follows : 

They gazed upon Alexander for a long time without uttering a word. 
At last the chief ambassador gave vent to his thoughts in the following 
speech : 

" Had the gods given thee a body proportionate to thy ambition, the 
whole universe would have been too little for thee. With one hand thou 
wouldst touch the east, and with the other the west ; and not satisfied with 
this, thou wouldst follow the sun, and know where he hides himself. Such 
as thou art, thou yet aspirest after what it will be impossible for thee to 
attain. Thou Grossest over from Europe into Asia ; and when thou shalt 
have subdued the whole race of men, then thou wilt make war against 
rivers, forests, and wild beasts. Dost thou not know, that tall trees are 
many years in growing, but may be torn up in an hour's time ; that the 
lion serves sometimes for food to the smallest birds ; that iron, though so 



186 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

hard, is consumed by rust ; in a word, that there is nothing so strong, 
which may not be destroyed by the weakest thing? 

" What have we to do with thee ? We never set foot in thy country. 
May not those who inhabit woods be allowed to live, without knowing who 
thou art, and whence thou comest? We will neither command over, nor 
submit to any man. And that thou mayest be sensible what kind of 
people the Scythians are, know that we received from heaven, as a rich 
present, a yoke of oxen, a plough-share, an arrow, a javelin, and a cup. 
These we make use of both with our friends, and against our enemies. To 
our friends we give corn which we procure by the labor of our oxen ; with 
them we offer wine to the gods in our cup ; and with regard to our enemies, 
we combat them at a distance with our arrows, and near at hand with our 
javelins. It is with these we formerly conquered the most warlike nations, 
subdued the most powerful kings, laid waste all Asia, and opened ourselves 
a way into the heart of Egypt. 

" But thou, who boastest coming to extirpate robbers, thou thyself are 
the greatest robber on earth. Thou hast plundered all the nations thou 
hast overcome. Thou hast possessed thyself of Lydia, invaded Syria, Per- 
sia, and Bactriana ; thou art forming a design to march as far as India, and 
thou now comest hither to seize upon our herds of cattle. The great pos- 
sessions which thou hast, only make thee covet more eagerly that which 
thou hast not. Dost thou not see how long the Bactrians have checked 
thy progress ? Whilst thou art subduing these, the Sogdians revolt, and 
victory is to thee only the occasion of war. 

" Pass but the Jaxartes, and thou wilt behold the great extent of our 
plains. It will be in vain for thee to pursue the Scythians ; and I defy 
thee to overtake them. Our poverty will be more active than thy army, 
laden with the spoils of so many nations; and when thou shalt fancy us at 
a great distance, thou wilt see us rush suddenly upon thy camp ; for we 
pursue and fly from our enemies with equal speed. I am informed that 
Greeks speak jestingly of the Scythian solitudes, and that they are even 
become a proverb ; but we are fonder of our deserts, than of your great 
cities and fruitful plains. Let me observe to thee, that fortune is slip- 
pery ; hold her fast, therefore, for fear she should escape thee. Put a 
curb to thy felicity, if thou desirest to continue in possession of it. 

" If thou art a god, thou oughtest to do good to mortals, and not de- 
prive them of their possessions ; if thou art a mere man, reflect always 
on what thou art. They whom thou shalt not molest, will be thy true 
friends ; the strongest friendships being contracted between equals ; and 
they are esteemed equals who have not tried their strength against each 
other; but do not imagine that those whom thou conquered can love thee; 
for there is no such thing as friendship between a master and his slave, 
and a forced peace is soon followed by war. 

" To conclude, do not fancy that the Scythians will take an oath on 
concluding an alliance. The only oath among them is to keep their 
word without swearing. Such cautions as these do indeed become Greeks, 
who sign their treaties, and call upon the gods to witness them; but, with 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 187 

regard to us, our religion consists in being sincere, and in keeping the 
promises we have made. That man who is not ashamed to break his word 
with men, is not afraid of deceiving the gods; and of what use could 
friends be to thee whom thou couldst not trust ? Consider that we will guard 
both Europe and Asia for thee. We extend as far as Thrace, and we are 
told that Thrace is contiguous to Macedonia. The river Jaxartes alone di- 
vides us from Bactriana. Thus we are thy neighbors on both sides. Con- 
sider, therefore, whether thou wilt have us for friends or enemies." — Rollin. 

It appears from this speech that, at that time, (B. C. 328), the Asiatic 
and European Scythia joined; and that the Scythian empire occupied all 
the territory now forming the southern part of Asiatic and European Rus- 
sia; and that it was north of the Macedonian empire in its whole extent 
east and west. The question naturally arising is, What people then dwelt 
north of the Scythians? or did that term cover all the north of Asia? If 
the term Scythian was then generic, and included all the nomadic tribes, 
Scythia, then, covered all the modern Siberia, and was the name of what is 
now Asiatic, as well as European Russia. These vast plains of Siberian 
Asia were then occupied by nomadic families, called Scyths (wanderers) 
who became known to the imperial belt of empires simply as they rushed 
down from this great northern empire to share with their southern neigh- 
bors a more genial climate, and productions more varied and luxurious. 
This has always been the great Scythian or nomadic field of the world ; 
the region in which the nomadic division of the various races could have 
an abundance of room for their flocks and herds, and where they could 
have perfect freedom from the restraints of civilization and refinement. 
It was the nomadic field in which the true Scythian of every nation 
" lived, and moved, and had his being." This, was then, (except its 
southern part), the great unknown, so marked on ancient maps. The Per- 
sian sages scanned those northern heavens and wondered why that boreal 
electric sun, whose streamlets shot up with such terrific majesty, never re- 
vealed its face like our eastern sun ? What kind of animals dwelt in those 
regions of night and snow, and ice and tempests? Could any human be- 
ings dwell there? And if so, of what race? The Greeks residing in 
towns and cities, cultivating the arts and sciences, and fond of every species 
of refinement, cast an eye of contempt upon this northern world, with its 
scanty productions and numerous tribal nations. All their worthless 
tramps they called Scyths, not once having the most distant thought that 
out of this savage nomadic hive, would swarm forth the future rulers of 
the world. Of these ancient, nomadic races are the world's present rulers. 

Alexander crossed the Jaxartes, and totally defeated the Scythians. 
He returned their prisoners and treated the nation kindly. " The Scyth- 
ians had always been considered as invincible; but after they were de- 
feated it was owned that every nation in the world ought to yield to 
the Macedonians. The Sacse, who were a powerful nation, sent an em- 
bassy to Alexander, by which they submitted themselves to him, and re- 
quested his friendship. The Scythians themselves made an apology by 
their ambassadors, throwing the blame of what had happened on some few 



188 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

individuals, and declaring tliat they were ready to obey all the commands 
of the victorious prince." 

Having totally subdued Sogdiana, he left for the adjoining country of 
the Bactrians, who had partly revolted. In his progress the elements 
fought against him. In our view they were the voice of the dumb ass 
speaking. " In the country of Gabaza (of Sogdiana) he (Alexander) was 
met with a terrible storm. Flashes of lightning coming thick one upon 
the other, dazzled the eyes of the soldiers, entirely discouraged them. It 
thundered almost incessantly, and the thunderbolts fell every moment at 
the feet of the soldiers, so that they did not dare either to stand still or ad- 
vance. On a sudden, a violent shower of rain, mixed with hail, came 
pouring down like a flood ; and so extreme was the cold in this country, 
that it froze the rain as soon as it fell. The sufferings of the army on this 
occasion were almost insupportable. The king was the only person in- 
vincible by these calamities, rode up and down among the soldiers, com- 
forting and animating them ; and pointing at smoke which issued from 
some distant huts, urged them to march thither with all the speed possible. 
Having given orders for the felling of a great number of trees, and lay- 
ing them in heaps up and down, he had fires made in different places, 
and by this means saved the army, but upwards of a thousand men lost 
their lives. The king made up to the officers and soldiers the several 
losses they had sustained during this fatal storm." — Rollin. " They fought 
from heaven ; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." Judges v. 20. 

" When they were recovered so well as to be able to march, he went 
into the country of the Sacae, which he soon overran and laid waste. Soon 
after this Oxyartes, (one of the friendly Persian princes of Bactriana,) re- 
ceived him into his palace, and invited him to a sumptuous banquet, in 
which he displayed all the magnificence of the barbarians. He had a 
daughter called Roxana, whose exquisite beauty was heightened by all the 
charms of wit and good sense. Alexander found her charms irresistible 
and made her his wife." 

This marriage was under the specious pretence of uniting the two 
nations in such bands as should improve their mutual harmony, by blend- 
ing their interests, and throwing down all distinctions between the con- 
querors and the conquered. This marriage displeased the Macedonians 
very much, and exasperated his chief courtiers, to see him make one of his 
slaves his father-in-law'; "but as, after the murder of Clitus, no one dared 
to speak to him with freedom, they applauded what he did with their eyes 
and countenances, which can adapt themselves wonderfully to flattery and 
servile complaisance." — Rollin. 

In the northeast corner of Bactriana, bordering on Scythia, was the 
country of the Sacse the Latin of Sakai. This family became so powerful 
that they conquered Bactriana and Sogdiana. Spreading west and north 
they filled the Caspian and Aral basins. They spread over Scythia, and 
according to Persian historians, gave their name to that whole region. 

Passing southwest they entered northern Media; then swarmed west- 
ward and toward the north, into Armenia. Leaving colonies in Armenia 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 189 

east of the Araxes, the most powerful families, carrying out their Scythian 
or nomadic spirit, crossed that river, passed out of Armenia, entered the 
Georgian and Caucasian wild. Moving onward into the basin of the 
Euxine Sea; thence through what was afterwards Asiatic Sarmatia. Pass- 
ing the Tanais (Don) they entered Europe. Other Scythian tribes fol' 
lowed them, they crossed Europe in a northwesterly direction, they reached 
the Kimbric peninsula, where they remained for many centuries, sending 
off colonies towards the four winds of heaven. Colonies under Odin, 
crossed over into the Scandinavian peninsula, took possession of its 
southern portion, driving the Lapps before them. 

That Odin was a Scythian from Asia, of the family of the Sakai, or 
Sacse, seems to be established. Of Odin, Sharon Turner says, " It is not at 
all improbable, but that some of these marauding tribes of Sakai, or Sacas- 
sani, were gradually propelled to the western coasts of Europe, on which 
they were found by Ptolemy, and from which they molested the Roman 
empire, in the third century of our era. There was a people called Saxoi, 
on the Euxine, according to Stephanus. We may consider these also, as a 
nation of the same parentage; who, in the wanderings of the Sakai, from 
Asia to the German Ocean, were ieft on the Euxine, as others had chosen 
to occupy Armenia. We may here recollect the traditional descent of Odin, 
preserved by Snorre in the Edda and his history. This great ancestor of 
the Saxon and Scandinavian chieftains, is represented to have migrated 
from a city on the east of the Tanais (Don), called Asgard, and a country 
called Asaland, which imply the city and land of the As£e or Asians. The 
cause of this movement was the progress of the Romans. Odin is stated 
to have moved first into Russia, and thence into Saxony. This is not im- 
probable. The wars between the Romans and Mithridates involved and 
shook most of the barbaric nations in these parts, and may have excited 
the desire, and imposed the necessity of a westerly, or European emi- 
gration." 

We have made this quotation from Sharon Turner, not for its Anglo- 
Saxon phase, (since that has been discussed under the British phase of the 
Eastern Question), but to prove that the Saxon and Scandinavian families 
are daughters of the same mother nation, whose first home was in south- 
western Asia; then, in the days of Alexander, and during many centuries 
previous, and who now dwell at the Aryan centre. This historic fact will, 
hereafter, be of great use to us, in the progressive history of the origin and 
growth of the Russian empire. Having traced some of the swarms of the 
Sakai-suna into their Scandinavian retreat, we are prepared to finish our 
sketch of Alexander's work among the families of Asiatic Scythia and 
northeastern Persia, called Bactriana and Sogdiana. 

The conquest of those two provinces completed the subjugation of the 
Persian empire by Alexander. His great mission under Jehovah comes to 
an end. Soon after this the great horn of the he-goat is broken. With 
him, we have, at the present, nothing further to do, except it be to sum up 
the results of his mission so far as they concern the tenantry of the 
northern bear-field, designed in distant centuries, to be the vast domains 



190 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of the Russian empire ; an empire whose features cannot be fully under- 
stood without a knowledge of its original elements — its ancient tribal 
nations. These, by the dim light of tradition, and fragments of history, 
we are attempting to trace. 

The time had come for the removal of the second (Medo-Persian) of the 
Gentile horns. God raised up the third horn (Greco-Macedonian) for the 
further accomplishment of His will toward the family of the Hebrews, 
Zech. ii. 18, 19, to scatter Israel and Judah. It is here worthy of note that 
the third and fourth horns were located in the direction of Israel's retire- 
ment and were favorably situated to accomplish their appointed work. As 
these nomadic Hebrew families moved westward, it was necessary that the 
imperial cordon be extended westward to hold the emigrating host to the 
line of their retreat to the great northwest, to keep them from the luxuries 
and enervating effects of a more southern latitude. They were to dwell in 
the cold north, designed to develop muscle and brain. The Greco-Mace- 
donian empire, the third Gentile horn was raised up to continue the im- 
perial cordon during the days of the Scythian empire, and while new colo- 
nies from central Asia were moving westward. Still later, when these 
northern or German families were becoming numerous and powerful, a 
fourth kingdom was raised up to carry this imperial cordon, like the 
Chinese wall, through southern Europe to the western or Atlantic ocean. 
Shut out from these southern latitudes they were forced to develop charac- 
ter suited to the national work of the last days. We have already seen 
that the northwest of Europe and the Isles of the Sea (British Isles) formed 
the seminary of the British empire, the king of the south ; and we shall 
soon learn that, in the Scandinavian peninsula were educated those rulers 
which shall form and guide the great northern empire; in a word, that the 
kings of the north and south are imperial cousins. 

Alexander constructed the third division of the cordon which extended 
from Macedonia eastward along the southern boundary of the Scythian 
empire to the northeastern extremity of the Persian empire; thence south- 
east to the Indus. Thus did the Scythians and Grecians become neighbors, 
through an extent of more than four thousand miles. Two families. Hying 
side by side, could not fail to have more or less intercourse. The Scythians 
had not the power to carry their conquests south of this military cordon ; 
nor were the Greeks tempted to penetrate the inhospitable north. Scythia 
supplied Greece with precious metals. And, in time of war, furnished 
soldiers and an immense number of horses and cattle which were raised on 
their plains in such abundance. 

Such a constant intermingling of races so dissimilar in their habits of 
living, their manners and customs could not fail to produce very marked 
results. 1. Intermarrying must have taken place. Among masters and 
slaves in our country there was that intercourse which gave birth to a new 
race. But between the Grecians and Scythians there did not intervene a 
gulf so wide and so impassible. They were partly conquered, it is true, 
but the subjugated were not of the race of Ham ; on which rested a special 
curse. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 191 

It is said that ten thousand Grecian soldiers of Alexander's army, 
married barbarian wives. Alexander himself married Roxana, the daugh- 
ter of Oxyartes, a Bactrian prince. And as he was in the country of the 
Sacse, or Sakai, it is more than likely that her great beauty was of Hebrew 
origin. It is quite certain that the inhabitants of Bactriana, Sogdiana, 
and of Scythia, were more or less of Jewish, or Israelitish extract. 

This intermarrying with the barbarians introduced a closer and a more 
friendly intercourse. The children of Grecian and Scythic parents would 
naturally give rise to new thoughts, habits, manners and customs, and as 
the Grecian was the superior race, they being the conquerors, there would 
be a desire to make the Greek their popular tongue. From India to the 
extreme of European Scythia, the Grecian would be the language prin- 
cipally taught. This would be strictly true with the border families. 
Still, the traffic between the countries, would carry the Grecian language 
into the distant north. The interchange of the various metals for the more 
southern products, would cause a general desire to speak the language of 
the more refined Grecian. 

Had this intelligence ceased with Alexander the spread of the Grecian 
tongue would have been impeded. This, however, did not immediately 
take place. The spread of the Grecian language through those nations of 
the north under Alexander's successors was quickened. The four king- 
doms that grew up out of Alexander's monarchy were very powerful for 
centuries. The kingdoms of Thrace, Macedon, Syria, and Egypt, held the 
world under subjugation for centuries. The Grecian tongue continued, 
therefore, to be popular; so universal was that language that its knowledge 
became everywhere necessary. 

In those days Ptolemy Philadelphus (who reigned over 33,339 well- 
peopled cities) had the Old Testament translated into Greek; a translation 
which has been called Septuagint, because translated by the labors of 
seventy different persons. This popularity of the Grecian language con-» 
tinned down to the birth of Christ. The New Testament was written in 
Greek, and through that language was carried wherever men could be found 
ready to hear the Gospel. 

It is remarkable that the Greek empire should have a latter time of 
its existence which continued over a thousand years. Was it not con- 
tinued that its northern frontier, so extended, should give the nomadic 
tribes, passing westward, an opportunity of hearing and reading the Gos- 
pel ? Through the Greek church, all the Scythic or Gothic nations were 
permitted to hear the Gospel. The commission was. Go ye into the world 
and preach the Gospel to every creature. Though, on the day of Pentecost 
it was necessary to impart the gift of tongues, yet, when epistles were after- 
wards sent to the churches, they were written in the Greek language. And 
as people think in the language they speak, Grecian thought must have 
been the ruling thought of some fifteen centuries. 

Who can reflect upon these two great features of those centuries, 
Grecian blood aud Grecian language, without seeing the divine hand, even 
in those early days. God was preparing and educating a people for the 



192 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

great north. To accomplish His purposes He mixes races and languages, 
that out of this infinite mixture He might form a man and a people in 
every way adapted to His designs. 

THE NORTHERN OR RUSSIAN FIELD UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 

To complete the imperial cordon westward so as to hold the moving 
masses, from Central Asia (called Asiatic Scythia) to the grand northwest- 
ern highway which traced its course around the imperial zone to the west- 
ern ocean, a fourth empire was required, stronger in its northern defenses 
than either of the other universal monarchies. 

The reasons for its superior strength v/ere the rapidly increasing 
pressure toward the more southern latitudes owing to the increase of popu- 
lation. 

The Kimbri from Central Asia had reached the Atlantic coast of 
Europe nearly one thousand years before Christ. The Scythians, Goths or 
Germans, pressing on their rear, had advanced to the German Ocean, about 
seven hundred years B. C, while the Slavic or Sarmatians were in eastern 
Europe in the rear of the Scythians. Thus northern Europe being in the 
great emigrant highway was being filled with barbarians wholly unknown 
to Italy and southern Europe. If these tribal nations had been allowed a 
home in the south at that early date the plans of Jehovah relative to his 
people of Israel would have been frustrated. The empires of Britain and 
Russia, which now rule the south and the north, would not have been. 
The ten tribes would have missed their far off island, but God, the high 
ruler of nations, and absolute disposer of diadems, directed His servant, 
the prophet, to utter national history to his own purposes. 

Daniel saw a fourth kingdom towards the setting sun, strong as iron, 
and as furious as a sea monster. The facts of that fourth empire are indis- 
putable; the reasons of their existence we have stated. 

The Roman em.pire existed in its national purity for many centuries 
Csesar Augustus abandoning the idea of universal empire, in his last will, 
gave it the following limits: " I (Csesar Augustus) bequeath, as a valu- 
able legacy to my successors, the advice of confining the empire within 
those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks 
and boundaries : on the west, the Atlantic Ocean ; the Rhine and Danube 
on the north ; the Euphrates on the east ; and towards the south the sandy 
deserts of Arabia and Africa." 

In the course of one hundred and sixty years the successors of Augus- 
tus violated this will in two points, extending the northern boundary of 
the empire so as to include the British Isles (except the northern part of 
Scotland) which they subjugated in forty years, and held four centuries ; 
and Dacia, conquered by Trajan, after a five years' war. This district was 
north of the Danube, was thirteen hundred miles in circumference, and 
was a province of European Scythia, a colony from Sakaisanaic or Asiatic 
Scythia. These Kimbric and Gothic German or Scythian having seen and 
tasted the luxuries of the south and fanned by its zephyrs while occupied as 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 193 

Roman slaves and soldiers, it was difficult to restrain their frequent raids 
into the heart of Italy. Long before the days of Augustus the Kimbrians 
of the first emigration invaded the Roman empire. In conjunction with 
the Tutones they first met the Romans in the eastern Alps, B. C. 113. 
They defeated the Romans in several battles. They were met near Verona 
Aug. 101 B. C. by Marius and totally defeated. They fought with their 
shields fastened together by long chains ; their horsemen, of whom they 
had fifteen thousand, were well armed with helmet, coat of mail, shield, 
and spear. Marius had so chosen his position that the sun and dust were 
in their faces, and yet they contested the victory most bravely with the 
Romans, who were 55,000 strong. When the battle was lost, the women, 
who remained in the camp formed of the wagons, killed themselves and 
their children ; 140,000 fell in the battle. The number of prisoners was 
60,000. They having their wives and children with them, were very evi- 
dently designing to make Italy their future home. 

Sharon Turner gives us a more satisfactory account of the Kimmer- 
ians, an account which clearly proves that they were fully resolved to find 
a home in a more southern latitude. As their mother family dwelt in 
what now forms a part of southern Asiatic Russia, all the light which can 
be thrown upon their character will aid us to understand more clearly the 
■ original elements of Russian character. Mr. Turner thus speaks: "But 
two intimations have been preserved -to us of the Kimmerians, which 
probably express the general outline of their history. They are stated to 
have often made plundering incursions, and they were considered by 
Posidonius, to whose geographical works Strabo was often indebted, as a 
predatory and wandering nation. 

In the century before Caesar they became known to the Romans by the 
harsher pronunciation of Kimbri, in that formidable irruption from which 
Marius rescued the Roman state. At this period a great body of them 
quitted their settlements on the Baltic, and, in conjunction with other 
tribes, entered the great Hercynian forest, which covered the largest part of 
ancient Germany. Repulsed by the Boioi, they descended on the Danube. 
Penetrating into Noricum and lUyricum, they defeated the Roman Consul 
Narbo; and a few years afterwards, having by their ambassadors to Rome 
solicited in vain the senate to assign them lands for their habitation, for 
which they offered to assist the Romans in their wars, they defeated four 
other consuls in as many successive battles, and entered Gaul. Having 
ravaged all the country between the Rhone and the Pyrenees, they spread 
into Spain, with the same spirit of desolation. Repulsed there by the 
Celtiberi, they returned to Prance ; and joining with the Tutones, who had 
also wandered from the Baltic, they burst into Italy with a force that had 
accumulated in every region which they had traversed. Rome was thrown 
into consternation by their progress, and it required all the talents and 
skill of Marius, Sylla and the best Roman officers to overthrow them." 

The great mass of the Kimbric population perished in these conflicts; 
nearly 250,000 in two battles. The Kimbri here provoked their own de- 
struction by being the aggressors. The rest of the Kimmerian nation, were 
13 



194 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

scattered and feeble, continuing along the Baltic, and on the northwestern 
shore of Europe. The Kimbri were the first inhabitants of northern 
Europe ; spreading over its wilds from the Kimmerian Bosphorus to the 
Kimbric Chersonesus — from Thrace to Jutland and the German Ocean. 

This nomadic nation, at some early date, crossed over into the British 
Isles and were the ancestors of the Welsh, and Britons. " The Cymry of 
Britain originated from the continental Kimmerians. That a district, in 
the northern part of England, was inhabited by a part of the ancient 
British nation, and called Cumbria, whence the present Cumberland, is a 
fact favorable to this presumption." — S. Turner. 

The historical triads of the Welsh connect themselves with these sup- 
positions in a very striking manner. They state that the Cymry were the 
first inhabitants of Britain, before whose arrival it was occupied by bears 
and wolves, beavers, and oxen with large protuberances. They add that 
Hu Cadran, or Hu the Strong or Mighty, led the nation of the Kymry 
through the Hazy, or German Ocean, into Britain, and to Llyda, or Ar- 
morica in France ; and that the Kymry came from the eastern parts of 
Europe, or the regions where Constantinople now stands. Though we 
would not convert Welsh traditions into history, where they stand alone, it 
cannot be unreasonable to remember them, when they coincide with classi- 
cal authorities. In the present case the agreement is striking. The Kim- 
merians, according to the authorities already stated (Strabo, Claudian), pro- 
ceeded from the vicinity of the Kimmerian Bosphorus to the German 
Ocean ; and the Welsh deduce their ancestors, the Cymry, from the regions 
south of the Bosphorus. The Welsh indeed add the name of their chief- 
tain, and that a division of the same people settled in Armorica. But if 
the memory of Lygdamis, who led the Kimmerian emigration to Asia, and 
of Brennus, who marched with the Kelts against Greece, were preserved in 
the countries which they overran : so might the name of Hu Carctan, who 
conducted some part of the western emigrations be remembered in the island 
which he colonized. That Armorica or Bretagne, was a colony from a race 
of men similar to those who inhabited Britain is verified by the close re- 
semblance of the languages of the two countries. The Kymry, Kimmerii 
and the Kimbri, were of one original stock. They were too much hated, 
and feared for their manners to be well described. Ephorus said the Kim- 
merians dwelt in subterraneous habitations, which they called argillas, com- 
municating by trenches. It is certainly a curious analogy of language, 
that argel, in the language of the Cymry or British, means a covert, a place 
covered over. This mode of habitation seems to have been the primitive 
state of barbaric life. 

The Troglodytes of Asia are said to have lived in caves ; and Tacitus 
describes some of the ruder German tribes as dwelling underground. The 
practice of several animals which burrow in the earth may have suggested 
the custom ; and it suits that savage state into which even the emigrants 
from civilized society may lapse among woods and marshes, want and war- 
fare, if they lose the knowledge of the mechanic arts, or the tools which 
these require. Ephorus added, that they had an oracle deeper under- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 195 

ground. The Kimbri swore by a brazen bull, which they carried with 
them. In battle they appeared with helmets representing fierce beasts gap- 
ing, or some strange figures; and added a high floating crest to make them 
look taller. They used white shining shields and iron mail, and either the 
battle-axe or long and heavy swords. They thought it base to die of a 
disease, and exulted in a military death, as a glorious and happy end. — 
S. Turner. 

The Keltoi, according to the Greeks, were a branch of the Kimmerians. 
Kimmerian was a generic term. The people had specific names; those that 
invaded Asia under Lygdamis were called Trerones or Treres. The Romans 
called them Galli. All classical authors locate the Kelts in the western 
part of Europe, in France and Spain and emerging into Italy. 

" The Welsh, the Gaelic, the Irish, the Cornish, the Armoric, the 
Manks, and the ancient Gaulish tongue, are the related languages, which 
sprang from the Kimmerian or Keltic stock. The Anglo Saxon, the Fran- 
cotheotisc, the Mseso-gothic, and the Islandic of former times; and the 
present German, Suabian, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Ork- 
neyan, English and Lowland Scotch, are ramifications of the great Gothic 
or Scythian stock. The third genus of European languages, the ancient 
Sarmatian, or modern Slavonic appears in the present Polish and Russian. 

Europe has therefore been peopled from Asia ; principally from central 
Asia, which is now in Asiatic Russia, from the Iranian and Turanian 
centres. These v^ere the great parent hives which sent so many swarms 
into the European wilds ; which in after years, swarmed again into the 
Roman empire. We have extended our remarks on the European history 
of the first or Kimmerian emigration, because their Asiatic history as 
that people grew and spread over what is now Asiatic Russia, is unwritten. 
Their ancestors are there ; and they form an important element of Russian 
character. The Scythians we have examined in their Asiatic homes. 
Their European character will come up when we examine the Russian 
dynasties. It will be our purpose to examine their further efforts, to 
break through the northern cordon of that empire, and find homes in its 
sunny south. These raids will be noticed, only so far as they develop the 
character of these tribes. 

The Kimmerian and Gothic, German or Scythian tribal nations made 
so many raids into the Roman empire during the thirteen centuries of its 
existence, that we shall be obliged to confine our historic narration to those 
that develop more or less the elements of Russia and the exceedingly com- 
plex nature of Russian character. 

In the reign of Marcus Antoninus, all the German tribes with the Sar- 
matians, from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube, confederated 
against the Roman empire. Their aim was for plunder and for the wines 
of the south. The constant effort of the inhabitants of the German and 
Sarmatian wilds was to find a more southern home, though the hot climate 
deprived them of health, as well as of physical and mental power. God 
had evidently another purpose in allowing these northern barbarians to in- 
vade the Roman empire. There was to be born a new race, a race fitly 



196 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

symbolized by a mixture of iron and clay, the Roman iron with the Ger- 
man clay. No permanent removal of the German clay deposits no cleav- 
ing, but simply an admixture, giving strength of iron to the northern 
clay. The mighty empires of the " north " and the " south," were to have 
their seats far in the north of the old imperial zone, yet they were to utilize 
all of the religion, laws, manners, customs, and improvements of the 
Greeks and Romans that would aid in the formation of northern civiliza- 
tion, so vastly superior to that of the more southern kingdoms. 

Marcus Antoninus marched against this northern confederacy with the 
forces of his empire; and after several severe battles the spirit of the bar- 
barians gave way and their confederacy was dissolved. The flower of the 
German youth were sent into Britain, then a Roman province, where they 
were made servants, hostages, and soldiers. Some were carried south and 
mingled, as servants of the Roman nobility. Thus were the hardy Ger- 
mans taught in the Roman seminaries. One thing is worthy of note, that 
although the Roman empire was finally subdued by the northern bar- 
barians, their seats of empire were not allowed to go south. In the year 
800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans. Since that date, 
Germany under its Austrian and Prussian dynasties, has been denom- 
inated, " The Holy Roman Empire." 

The second great eruption of the barbarians into the Roman empire, 
was in the reign of Decius. This was under the name and control of the 
Goths. They were of the Indo-Tutonic, Scythian family, and identical 
with the Getse or European Scythians. They were so powerful as to give 
their name to the second great Asiatic emigration. The eruption which 
we are about to describe commenced about A. D. 250. This was the second 
migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine, The causes of this 
second migration is unknown except to the leaders of the movement. 
They were ever prone to a more southern latitude. Gibbon says, " Either 
a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods or the 
eloquence of a daring leader were sufficient to impel the Gothic arms on 
the milder climates of the south." The fame of this movement excited the 
bravest warriors from all the Vandal tribes of Germany, many of whom 
are seen a few years afterwards fighting under the common standard of the 
Goths. The Vandals were a branch of the Gothic family. The first for-; 
ward movement of the emigrants carried them to the Pry pec, a branch of 
the Borysthenes, (Dnieper), which heads near the sources of the Vistula; 
the Vistula flowing n. n. w. into the Baltic Sea, while the Borysthenes run- 
ning s. e. discharges its waters into the Euxine or Black Sea. With these 
hardy warriors of the north, were all their wealth, their families and their 
herds of cattle. Through this vast wilderness was found rich pasturage. 

New tribes, as they advanced, cast their destinies into this vast emi- 
grant train, which soon numbered its 70,000 warriors. The Venedi first 
joined them on the waters of the Borysthenes, then the Bastarnae north of 
the Carpathian mountains. The Venedi were a branch of the Scythian or 
German family; though by some authors, they were numbered with the 
Sarmatians. But, as Gibbon says, ''The confusion of blood and manners 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 197 

on that doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers." 
Approaching the Euxine this emigrant army was joined in part by the 
purer Sarmatian families, the Jazyges, the Alani (Caucasian Tartar) and 
the Roxolani. In this emigrant family were joined two distinct people, 
belonging to the second and third emigrations which originally came from 
what we now call Asiatic Russia. These were the Scythians, Germans, or 
Goths, and the Sarmatians or as they are now denominated the Slavonians. 

These noted branches of the human family were distinguished by 
their dwellings, the fixed huts or movable tents, the close dress or flowing 
garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force 
of infantry or cavalry; or perhaps most of all by the use of the Tutonic, 
or the Slavonian language. These languages were spoken by various tribes 
from the British Isles to the vicinity of Japan. Passing the Scythian ter- 
ritories as without any special attractions, they broke the imperial cordon ; 
entered Dacia, and faced the Roman emperor Decius. The Romans were 
finally defeated, and Decius and his son were slain. 

Numerous other German tribes followed, who brought the empire into 
a state of most alarming weakness. These conflicts we shall pass without 
any special notice since they do not particulary concern the elementary 
development of the Russian empire. The points of special interest in this 
southern raid are (1) the temporary confederation of the Tuton and the 
Slavonian with so many features utterly dissimilar; especially in lan- 
guage, (2) in habits of thought, and modes of living. The desire of plun- 
der, was their only bond of union. 3. It was, however, to them a school 
highly necessary to fit them for the exalted positions in their future north- 
ern nationalities. They were learning to cultivate the soil, and in a word, 
to make nature tributary to their wants in a much higher sphere. They 
robbed the Roman hive of its treasures to supply their own in the distant 
future. 

From the reign of Decius onward till the fall of the western or Latin 
empire the German nations were in conflict with the Latin and Greek di- 
visions of the fourth monarchy, they learned the Roman discipline, and 
mode of warfare, till they, by their superior physical powers became the 
first warriors of Europe. During the third, fourth, and fifth centuries and 
onward, the tribes of Goths and Sarmatians made frequent attacks upon 
the Greek empire. Those tribes, therefore, were disciplined in a military 
school, similar to that of the west. All those tribes, that dwell in what 
now constitutes European Russia were thus taught in the Grecian military 
academy. Among these the Alani and the Roxolani ranked among the 
most powerful. The Roxolani dwelt far to the north, and were the fathers 
of the Pcos-Ros, the Russians, whose residence (A. D. 862) about Novgorod 
Veliki cannot be very remote from that which the Geographer of Ravenna 
assigns to the Roxolani, (A. D. 886). 

We have now described the tribes which, emigrating from the Baltic 
as Goths or German emigrants, along the Vistula and down the Dnieper, 
(Borysthenes) were joined by the Alani and the Roxolani, and broke into 



198 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the Roman empire. We have also sketched events connected with the rise 
of the Russian empire. 

Elements which enter largely into Russian character, originating in 
eastern Asia, and which belong to the period of the Roman empire, should 
now claim our attention. We have aimed to follow the synthetical pro- 
cess : 1. To examine the original tribes of which the Russian empire is com- 
posed ; (2) to view the elements that are used in constructing the empire 
itself; — its separate, then its united tribal nationalities; or the Russian 
empire synthetically, and analytically. Without viewing the empire in its 
elementary parts, and as a whole, the character of that great power of the 
north will be very imperfectly understood. The Russian empire is the 
union of one hundred tribal nations, speaking forty languages. These 
tribal nations we have been describing in their progressive history; and 
we shall continue on their pathway till the Russian himself, the new man, 
in whose veins flows the blood of all races, steps upon the theatre of 
human action. 

We have been describing tribes whose acts were aimed principally 
against the imperial zone, occupied by the empires of Greece and Roine. 
These tribes originated in Asia ; principally in what is now known as 
Siberia or Asiatic Russia. We have described the Scythians, both in Asia, 
and in Europe, and have traced them to southwestern Asia, and noticed 
them in their various subsequent abodes, till some wandering tribes took 
up their dwelling places in the far-off island, of the west. We have noticed 
their ceaseless efforts to find southern homes, within the imperial cordon ; 
but were held, in their national settlements, to the emigrant line, a few 
small nations only, forming in the northern part of Italy. The term, 
Scythian, means wanderer, a nomad ; and is therefore generic. Such were 
all the inhabitants of northern Asia. The first tenants of this great 
northern field were Scyths or nomads. They were shepherds, herdsmen, 
and hunters. The immense plains of Scythia (and under this head we 
here include the whole country to the Arctic Seas) were covered with a 
grass that sustained immense flocks and herds, as well as wild horses. 
Asia as well as Arabia, was the native country of the horse. The inhabi- 
tants, it is said, lived, moved and had their being on the backs of these 
useful animals. On these they had their hunts, and pursued the chase. 
They hunted the hare, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and 
the antelope. "But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not con- 
fined to the destruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly en- 
counter the angry wild boar, when he turns against his pursuers, excite the 
sluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger as he slum- 
bers in the thicket. Where there is danger, there may be glory; and the 
mode of hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valor ; 
may justly be considered as the image of and as the school of war." 

The Scythians remained in one district only as long as the grass 
afforded sufficient to sustain their flocks and herds. When that was con- 
sumed, they changed their locality. Their camp-ground was their coun. 
try ; their families their community. Those families increasing, formed 



EUSSIAN PHASE. 199 

tribes, the mere temporary union of several tribes constituted a nation. 
Personal liberty is the tap-root of Scythian or nomadic life. Their occupa- 
tion made them wanderers. These northern Scythians in their progress 
formed a war-camp, as well as one of peace. Their flocks and herds sup- 
plied them with food and clothing. They were fond also of horse flesh, 
and they also consumed the flesh of those animals that died of disease. 
These Scythians were from their mode of life, flesh-eaters, and milk- 
drinkers. 

It is often asked whether our food has the power to shape character? 
Does animal food impart the traits of character of the animals consumed? 
Are flesh eaters more savage than those that subsist on vegetable food? 
Among the lower animals the carnivora are more cruel and blood-thirsty 
than those of the graminivora. Those that subsist on flesh are less careful 
of taking life. The nomads of high northern latitudes are forced to this 
mode of life. Those tribes that inhabit central Africa, that live on fruits 
and vegetables, are savages notwithstanding their food. 

We have seen that the term Scythian is used generically and specifi- 
cally. Generically it means a wanderer, and in that sense includes all the 
families of the Nomadic zone. Specifically there were two Scythias. We 
shall briefly review some of the chief nomadic tribes which are combined, 
as original elements in the modern Russian, of the 100 tribal nations com- 
bined in the Russian empire. We shall notice only a few of the principal, 
leaving the reader to carry out the subject as his time may allow. 

(1) Of the Scythians we have written at considerable length. (2) 
Another noted family were the Tartars, or Tatars, a Mongolian race of east- 
ern and middle Asia. They included all the Mongolian tribe conquered by 
Genghis Khan. They belonged to the Turanian family as to language. 
Some authors have called the Tartars Scythians. As to mode of life (be- 
ing wanderers) they were Scythians, but, as a family, they were distinct. 
They form a very distinct element of Russian character, since the Russians 
were conquered by, and held in subjection by the Tartars of Kiptchak, 
whose hordes overspread the southern and eastern provinces, and the plains 
between the Caspian and the Volga. This subjugation continued two and 
one-half centuries. During such a protracted period, Russian and Tartar 
blood must have been very intimately blended. (3) The Sarmatians were 
another powerful family which contributed its elements to develop the 
Russian. This term is generic, including about thirty families. Dr. 
Latham makes the term ethnological, since it designated Slavic races, par- 
ticularly the northeastern portion of the great Slavic family. In this 
family were found commingling the blood of Esthonians, Lithuanians, the 
Peucini, the Bastarnse, the Jazyges, Roxolani, the Venedi, the Gythones 
and Avareni in Europe; and the Perierbidi, the Jaxamatse, the Asoei, the 
"horse-eating" (Hippophagi) Sarmatae, the ''Royal" and Hyperborean 
Sarmatse, and many others, besides a multitude of nations in the region of 
the northern Caucasus. (4) Slaves or Slavonians, from Slowo, speaking, 
as distinguished from other nations, whom they called niemetz, or " mutes." 
This term is generic, as it is the name of a group of nations belonging to 



200 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the Aryan family whose tribal settlements extended from the Elbe to Kamt- 
chatka, and from the Frozen Sea to Ragusa on the Adriatic, the whole of 
eastern Europe being almost exclusively occupied by them. Their original 
names were Wends (Venedi) and Serbs. The latter name is applied to the 
whole Slavic race. Thfe earliest historical notices place the Slaves about the 
Carpathians, from which, as a centre, they radiated towards the four winds 
of heaven. They were afterwards divided into groups — the southeastern 
and the western; the first includes (1) Russians; (2) Bulgarians; (3) 
Illyrians (Serbs, Croats and Winds) ; the second, (1) Lechs (Poles, Siles- 
ians, Pomeranians); (2) Czechs or Bohemians, Czechs, Moravians, Slovaks; 
(3) Polabians, (who never became a nation) comprising the Slavic tribes of 
north Germany, now disappearing before the Tutonic population. Many 
of these have recently been incorporated with Turkey, Austria, Prussia and 
Saxony, the Slavonian population is estimated at upwards of 80,000,000. 

(5) Huns. This family came originally from Asia, dwelling in a dis- 
trict to the north of the great wall of China. About B. C. 200, they over- 
ran the Chinese empire, drove the emperor to an ignominious capitulation 
and treaty. After many years, the Huns were much broken, and finally 
divided into two camps, one going west and northwest in search of new 
homes ; of those that went northwest a large number established them- 
selves for a while on the banks of the Volga. Crossing this river, they en- 
tered the territories of the Alani, a pastoral people dwelling between the 
Volga and the Don. The Alani, who had long dwelt in these plains, re- 
sisted the incursions of the Huns with much bravery and some effect, until 
at length a bloody and decisive battle was fought on the banks of the Don, 
in which the Alan king was slain, and his army utterly routed ; a vast 
majority of the survivors joined the invaders. 

For further notice of the Huns, see other parts of the work. 

(6) Mongolians. Under this name is numbered one-half of the hu- 
man family. It is denominated, in color, the yellow race. The name is 
generic, and is now called the Turanic family, including Chinese, Indo- 
Chinese, Thibetans, Tartars of all kinds, Burmese, Siamese, Japanese, 
Esquimaux, Samoides, Finns, Lapps, Turks, and even Magyars. " Collective- 
ly, they are the great nomadic people of the earth, as distinguished from 
the Aryans, Semites and Hamites ; and are the same who, in remote an- 
tiquity, founded what is called the ' Median empire,' in lower Chaldea, an 
empire, according to Rawlinson, that flourished and fell between about 
2458 and 2234 B. C; That is before Nineveh became known as a great city. 
Thus early did some of these nomadic tribes forsake their early mode of 
life. The Chinese empire is another early (2000 B. C.) and powerful branch 
of this family." In Greek history they were known as Scythians ; in Ro- 
man history they were called Huns. In the middle ages they appear as 
Monguls, Tartars, and Turks. Their empire (A. D. 1240-1) extended from 
China to Germany. In the 9th century, the Magyars, a tribe of Ugrians, 
also of Mongol extraction, under their leader Arpad, established themselves 
in Hungary, where, in process of time, they became converted to Chris- 
tianity and founded a kingdom famous in European history. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 201 

(7) Turks. The Turks originated in eastern Asia; and, though the 
great body of that family moved towards the south and west, forming what 
is now called the Ottoman family, still other parts remained in the no- 
madic zone and helped to form the Russian character. 

(8) Alani, these we have already described ; also, their conquests by 
the Huns, and their union with that family. 

(9) Roxolani was one of the most northern tribes that became an 
element of the Russian empire. No special notice is required. (10) Mag- 
yars. These have also passed under review. (11) Poles. Poland was once a 
powerful kingdom, but its territory and its people are intergral parts, prin- 
cipally of the Russian empire. The original people were a mixture of 
races out of Asia. (12) Livonians; (13) The Esthonians; (14) The Og- 
rians; (15) The Finns; (16) The Lapps; (17) The Scandinavians; (18) 
The Dacians; (19) The Get« ; (20) The Thracians, and (21) Igours, are 
lesser families whose tribal blood flows in the veins of the modern Russian. 
These might deserve special notice. The chief of these families have come 
under review in other parts of the work. It is not required that we give 
any special ethnological sketch of them by families. The point that is of 
special interest is the infinite variety of elements combined in the Russian. 

The European Huns to-day are quite unlike the Huns that, about three 
centuries before the Christian era, overthrew the Chinese empire. The Hun- 
garians or Magyars, have been so mingled with Turkish and Slavonian 
(Russian) blood as to deface the ancient, or Kalmuck Tartar features; so 
distinct in Attila, and his army of Huns. Some historians contend that 
the Huns and Finns are of the same original stock. In Gibbon, H. H. 
Milman has the following note : " Were the Huns Finns ? (It should be, 
Were the Finns Huns ? — ^W.) This obscure question has not been debated 
very recently, and is yet very far from being decided. We are of opinion 
that it will be so hereafter in the same manner as that with regard to the 
Scythians. We shall trace in the portrait of Attilla a dominant tribe of 
Mongols, or Kalmucks, with all the hereditary ugliness of that race; but in 
the mass of the Hunnish army and nation will be recognized the Chuni 
and the Ounni of the Greek geography, the Huns of the Hungarians, the 
European Huns, and a race in close relationship with the Finnish stock. 
Whoever has seen the emperor of Austria's Hungarian guard, will not 
readily admit their descent from the Huns described by Sidonius." We 
must keep in mind that Europe was peopled from Asia. 

The Huns from their original seats north of the Chinese wall spread 
rapidly, towards the four winds. " Their rustic chiefs, who assumed the 
appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the conquerers, and sovereigns, of 
a formidable empire." — Gibbon. 

One of the commanders of the Tanjou, in one expedition, conquered 
twenty-six nations. The Igours, distinguished above the race of Tartars by 
the use of letters, were numbered among his vassals. Their dominion spread 
over China and Siberia. B. C. 244. The Chinese wall, 25 feet high and 1,500 
miles long, was built to protect China against the Huns. It was, however, 
a failure, and China was obliged to submit to a Hunnish Tanjou. During 



202 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

this subjugation a new race sprang up, a mixture of Huns and Chinese. 
China was again conquered by the Mongols. The empire of the Hunnish 
Tanjous continued from B. C. 1200 to A. D. 100—1300 years. The revival 
of Chinese power dissolved this ancient empire of the Huns. " The Sienpi, 
a tribe of Oriental Tartars, retaliated the injuries which they had formerly 
sustained; and the power of the Tanjous, after a reign of thirteen hundred 
years, was utterly destroyed before the end of the first century of the Chris- 
tian era." — Gibbon. 

One hundred thousand of the poorest, renouncing their name and origin, 
mingled with the Sienpi. Two hundred thousand settled towards the south- 
east under the protection of China. The most powerful tribes turned their 
faces towards the great West. Two great divisions moved towards the Euro- 
pean world, the one towards the Oxus ; the other in the direction of the 
Volga. The division that moved toward the southwest, entered a warmer 
climate, and, mixing with other people, changed in their features and com- 
plexion. For this reason, and from their changes in modes of living, they 
were called white Huns. 

The more northern division, which moved towards the Volga, mixed 
more or less with, tribes still nearer the brutes, and became still more savage. 
They took the name of black Huns. They spread through the Siberian 
wilds and through European Sarmatia. 

It was about three and one-half centuries that they continued lost to 
China, and unknown to the Roman world. During those three hundred 
and fifty years they v>^ere on what is now Russian territory, forming con- 
nexions and mixing their blood with the native tribes. The Sienpi, who 
extended 3,000 miles east and west, were still crowding them towards the 
land of the Goths. Under Attila, Hunnic and Gothic bloods were mingled. 
That the Huns form a very important element in Russian character will 
not, for a moment be questioned. 

21. — Hebrews. That the Russian has flowing in his veins the blood 
of the Hebrew race is qnite certain. The Hebrews, in their wide and pro- 
tracted dispersions, have wandered over Russia, especially Judah (the Jews). 
This is a matter of history. But as their wanderings will come under 
another head, we deem it not necessary to make, in this place, any further 
remarks. 

22. — Cossacks. The Cossacks, forming a present element of Russian 
character, will, at present, be noted only as to their origin. Who were Cos- 
sacks ? This is a question, not readily answered ; or why called by that 
name, is a problem not easily solved. Their name has been derived from 
words meaning, in radically distinct languages, " an armed man, a saber, a 
rover, a goat, a promontory, a coat, a cassock, and a district in Circassia." 
Some call them Tartars ; others consider them of Russian stock. " The 
most probable view is, that they are a people of very mixed origin." Others 
call them a triple mixture of Slavonian, Tartar and Circassian. They are 
superior to the Russians, in intelligence, cleanliness, refinement, and enter- 
terprise; — civilized, very gallant, and sober people. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 203 

As to their origin and name, another solution is given which will be 
examined under the " Jewish Phase of the Eastern Question." 

23. — Samoyedes. These tribes are scattered over the extreme north of 
Europe and Asia. Their dwellings are under ground. " In that dreary- 
climate, the smoke that issues from the earth, or rather from the snow, be- 
trays the subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and Samoyedes; the 
want of oxen and horses, is imperfectly supplied by the use of reindeer, 
and of large dogs ; and the conquerors of the earth insensibly degenerate 
into a race of deformed and diminutive savages, who tremble at the sound 
of arms." — Gibbon. They once occupied all of east Siberian Russia, but 
the Mongolians have mingled with them. They have resisted civilization 
and Christianity, and live by fishing and the rearing of reindeer. 

We have now completed our sketch of some of those tribal nations that 
occupied the great northern field, or what is now the Russian territory in Asia 
and Europe. These tribes were known only as they pressed upon or broke 
through the northern imperial cordon of the Greeks and Romans. They 
seemed at times, to come as swarms from the snows and tempests of the 
extreme north; but they were forced into those high latitudes by being 
obliged to pass north of the Black sea, and towards the sources of the large 
rivers, such as the Volga, the Don and Dnieper. 

Some of the more powerful nations emigrated westward along the cordon 
itself, and entered Europe through the southern pass; first appearing in 
Thrace, having crossed the Thracian Bosphorus. 

The Kimmerian, and Scythian, Gothic, or German emigrations took 
place some time before the rise of the Roman empire. These tribes were 
held to the more northern latitudes, by the Babylonian, by the Medo-Per- 
sian, and, later, by the Greco-Macedonian empires. It was evidently de- 
signed by Jehovah, in His national arrangements, to have all the earth 
peopled ; and by families adapted to the several fields they were to occupy. 
Such were the allurements of the zone, occupied, and to be occupied, by the 
four great monarchies, that were to scatter Israel and Judah, that a very 
strong imperial cordon had to be extended north of the empires, and west- 
ward, as these northern shepherds moved west, till it was finally terminated 
by the Western ocean. The four empires, occupying the fertile lands and 
mild climates east, and north of the Mediterranean sea, became so powerful, 
by commerce, arts, and sciences, as to be able to hold the northern she-oherd 
nations to their ancient fields. 

Here lay the emigrant route between the two great Asiatic nives east of 
the Caspian sea, and southeastern, eastern, and northwestern Europe. This 
great high- way, at times, was more or less obstructed by the imperial armies; 
yet the bravery of the northern shepherds soon cleared the passage, and 
emigration flowed westward in its usual channels, but little friendly inter- 
course existed between the northern shepherds and the civilized empires. 

During the fifteen hundred years of the duration of the Gentile mon- 
archies, the globe, as to its population, had three zones, the northern, the 
middle, and the southern ; the northern zone, including northern Asia and 
the northern and middle Europe; the middle zone was occupied by the three 



204 



THE EASTERN QUESTION, 



monarchies north and east of the Mediterranean sea; the south included 
northern Africa. From 612 to the birth of the Russian, two vast empires 
arose, the Mohammedan empire in Arabia; and the Turkish empire, from 
Turan, or Turkistan, in the northern zone. With the northern and middle 
zones, our present subject requires us more particularly to speak. The ten- 
ants of this great northern or shepherd zone, from their origin to the birth 
of the Russian, in the 9th century, belong to the introductory period of the 
Russian empire. As the great pyramid of Cheops, at Ghizeh, had its quarry- 
ing period, its transportation period, its dressing and fitting period; and its 
construction period ; through such preparatory work did the great northern 
empire pass, to reach its present immense proportions. Its materials were 
quarried in eastern Asia; transported to northeastern Europe; there dressed 
and fitted ; and, in process of time, erected into a political, social, and ecclesi- 
astical structure that fills and rules the nomadic north. 

We have called the readers' attention to the quarrying process, as it 
continued through ages ; have followed the lines of transportation to the 
site of the buildings, and have noted the work of dressing and fitting in 
its outline features, preparatory to the final construction of this immense' 
edifice. 

It is truly interesting to trace the origin and growth of simple nations, 
A single couple increasing to a numerous family, under the control of one 
head, this family increasing into several families, each family increasing as 
the first till a nation is formed, speaking the same language, having the 
same religion, manners and customs, and acknowledging one supreme ruler. 
But whenever any territory gives birth to a family that, by its superiority 
of brain and muscle, is able to combine, hold together, and govern several 
of such national families, our admiration is awakened ; but we look with 
amazement at the power of that brain that can combine, hold, and govern 
one hundred of such tribal nations, speaking, at least, forty difierent lan- 
guages. 

We very reasonably look for some higher power than human intellect. 
And, having become satisfied of the management of an overruling. Almighty 
power, we look for some key to unlock the secret chambers of that mind 
that never acts without some motive. 

We have been tracing the origin, and peculiarities of the original ele- 
ments, that, combined, form the Russian empire. We have been tracing 
these elements under a great variety of names, Scythians, Tartars, Sarma- 
tians, Slavonians, Huns, Mongolians, Turks, with the lesser divisions under 
the names of Alani, Roxolani, Magyars, Poles, Livonians, Esthonians, 
Ogrians, Finns, Lapps, Scandinavians, Dacians, Getse, Thracians, Igours, 
Jews, Cossacks, and Samoyedes. Each of these families are generic, con- 
taining many specific families : so that the number is readily increased to 
more than one hundred. 

The combination of all these tribal nations into one empire governed 
by the energies of one brain is, in itself, a transcendent miracle. That 
people speaking so many languages, of so many original families, Shemitic, 
Japhetic, and Hamitic, should be under the control, supreme, of one mortal 
brain, is truly wonderful. 



. RUSSIAN PHASE. 205 

The northern zone, or Russian field, during those preparatory ages, of 
which we have been writing, seemed to afford suitable pastoral and hunt- 
ing grounds for the Scythian, or nomadic element of all tribes and nation- 
alties. It might, therefore, be called the nomadic zone. It was a world 
within itself; a zone, numbering eight million square miles. Its vast 
plains and valleys containing excellent pasturage for their immense flocks 
and herds, as well as hunting grounds for the numerous wild beasts of 
those high northern latitudes. Their rivers and lakes abounded in excel- 
lent varieties of fish, while the heavens yielded a supply of her active 
occupants. Thus furnished by nature, with a simple competency, their 
domestic cares were few, and usually very readily supplied. 

They dwelt in tents ; were, much of their wakeful moments, in the 
open air, attending to their flocks and herds ; or on their fleet horses pur- 
suing the chase. Those vast plains were the home of that noble animal 
equally with Arabia. The free Scythian was an equestrian of the first 
class, constant practice has seated the Scythians so firmly on horseback that 
they were supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil 
life, to eat, to drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting from their 
steeds. They are skilful with the lance ; handle with great power the 
long Tartar bow ; and they discharge their weighty arrows with unerring 
aim and irresistible force against the harmless' animals of the desert; the 
hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the 
antelope. But the Scythian hunters boldly attack the furious wild boar, 
excite the sluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the anger of the tiger, 
slumbering in the thicket. These dangerous hunts are their military 
schools. They also have their hunting matches. A circular area, many 
miles in diameter, containing all the wild animals of said district, is sur- 
rounded by the cavalry of hunters. These mounted hunters move in right 
lines towards the area's centre. They are not allowed to deviate to the 
right nor to the left; consequently, are obliged to climb hills, and swim 
rivers. This war with wild beasts fits them to war with man. 

How remarkably dissimilar was this nomadic life of the Scythian zone 
from that of the middle, or imperial zone. In southern Asia and Europe, 
the proud seats of the four Gentile monarchies, he grew up into quite an- 
other being. His living, material, and mode of life developed a race with 
new thoughts, and new desires. The one man we call a savage, the other 
is termed a man of knowledge, of civilization and refinement. The former 
is simply a child of nature, without any teacher, but the wilds of nature; 
the other a pupil of the wise of his own species. Which school is pro- 
ductive of the more favorable results? the school of nature, or that of art? 
This problem is variously solved. Each has its peculiar advantages, and 
its fatal consequences. It will be readily admitted that their moral and 
intellectual attainments, without any supernatural instructions, are very 
unequally developed. As to knowledge, between Solon and Attila, the 
savage Hun, there was an impassable gulf; yet physically, the Hun was 
superior to the Greek; in other qualities and attributes, he did not seem to 
belong to the same race of beings. What advantage, then, had the im- 



206 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

perial zone over the nomadic? Let us compare them, that we may learn 
wherein lies the superiority ; for, in every community, we have the settled 
and the nomadic element, or what, by the Greeks, would be called " The 
civilized, and the savage." 

Man was born in the middle zone. His great achievements, in the 
ancient and middle ages, were principally confined to that belt. On this 
territory his empires were erected. Here was God's visible temple located ; 
His revelations given; His worship established; His Son manifested in 
the flesh. Here He taught ; healed the sick ; fed the hungry ; raised the 
dead ; sufiered ; died ; arose ; ascended. To this zone the church was prin- 
cipally confined during the Roman and latter Greek empires. It is 
equally true that literature and science ; and what may be termed the arts 
of civilization and refinement principally took root and flourished in this 
soil ; but the chief cause of the vast superiority is not made sufficiently 
prominent — the Divine Revelations. The word of God, that bread of life is 
essential to man's perfect development. That food is adapted to the 
healthy growth of every element of his nature. It is the golden chain 
that connects man with the Deity, Jesus said, I am that Bread of Life. 
His word is the balm of Gilead, His radiant emanations ; the fountain of 
living waters. What constituted the difierence between Zingis Khan, 
(Temujin), Solon, and the Hebrew Solomon ? Which occupied the front 
rank of human development ? Temujin was a Mongolian, who com- 
menced his career of conquest at the age of 13 years. In a few years Mon- 
golia was conquered ; then, passing the Chinese wall, he humbled China ; 
afterward he marched westward, with 100,000 horse. Genghis Khan (Khan 
of Khans — King of Kings) rushed, like an irresistible torrent, upon the 
empire Kharism, whose ruler, Ala-ed-din Mohammed, was, at that time, 
one of the chief monarchs of Asia. The whole of the southern part of 
the Scythian zone was devastated; and this great Mongol emperor, who 
could neither read nor write, became monarch of the pastoral zone, the lord 
of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, who felt their united strength, 
and were impatient to rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the south. 
After reaching the bank of the Indus, he returned with the spoils of Asia. 

" In the course of his sanguinary career, Genghis is said to have de- 
stroyed, by wars and massacres, no fewer than five or six millions of 
human beings. His conquests were generally accompanied with acts of 
appalling barbarity, yet we seem to trace through the dreadful history of 
the man some indications of a civilizing tendency." He believed in one 
God ; he tolerated the worship of all gods. Physicians and priests were 
exempted from taxation, and military service; used hospitality; pun- 
ished with great severity, adultery, fornication, theft, and homicide; estab- 
lished a postal system so perfect, that one could travel through his vast 
dominions (3,600 miles) without fear of molestation. This man was what 
the Greeks and Romans would call an untutored barbarian, as were all 
these northern shepherds in the eyes of the citizens of the imperial zone. 
Wherein could the inferiority of this nomadic prince be detected? Simply 
in his want of the knowledge of letters and books. As to book learning 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 207 

he had none, since he could neither read nor write. In ordinary parlance, 
he would be called an uneducated savage. But, is it true that Genghis 
was uneducated ? Education, in its literal, primary meaning, signifies the 
leading out, or developing, of our natural attributes, generally divided into 
three classes, physical, intellectual, and moral. To develop the brain, and 
the body, is all that any system of education has the power to accomplish. 
Let us now analyze the instructions of this great nomadic prince, G-enghis 
Khan, — king of kings. No one can question the completeness, and 
efficiency of his physical education. His whole life was occupied in such 
exercises as tend to develop, train, and strengthen the corporeal members ; 
vastly superior in its results, to the most perfect system of drill in our first 
class military academies. His physical system of hygiene was well 
adapted to a full and healthy development of his body. What was his 
mental hygiene ? as to his intellect, and morals ? His hygienic system of 
the brain ? What mental attribute, as far as intellectual faculties are 
concerned, did not this Mongolian chief educate ? His occupation, the con- 
quest of so many tribes and nations, and their government, kept in active 
operation every mental faculty. His education was acquired, principally, 
in the saddle, at the head of immense armies. His moral training, how- 
ever, was such as to entitle him to the name of human tiger. His moral 
attributes were drawn out and totally perverted. 

The analysis of Solon's education, gives us to anticipate quite difierent 
results. It is necessary that we should consult brevity in sketching Solon's 
life, since it is read and known by all the intelligent. His physical educa- 
tion was thorough, for its kind ; being in-door, and in a crowded city. It 
was, of necessity, inferior to that of the Mongolian ; the latter being an 
open-air development. Their food and clothing were unlike ; Mongolian 
and Grecian exercises were exceedingly dissimilar; the one was a Mon- 
golian nomadic warrior; the other, one of the seven wise men of Greece. 

Their intellects, however, were educated under widely different circum- 
stances ; the one obtained much of his education from books ; the other 
from nature, and observation. The mind of the Grecian archon developed 
power from the experience of others. The Mongolian emperor, from his 
own experience. Both were legislators. The system of each was well 
adapted to the difierences of time, localities, and people. Solon's code for 
the Athenians was not superior in its workings to the postal system for the 
Mongolian empire. Their moral training suited their varied circumstances. 
They were both alike ignorant of the true God. Genghis Khan, in his 
birth, professed a divine incarnation; worshiped after the religion of Mo- 
hammed, and of the Grand Lama. He established by his laws a system 
of pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article of faith 
was the existence of one God, the author of all good; who fills by His 
presence, the heavens and earth, which He has created by His power. 

Solon was a devout worshiper of the heathen Gods; whose altars Paul 
saw, in his visit to Athens ; who thus speaks : " Men of Athens, I per- 
ceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and be- 
held your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Un- 



208 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

KNOWN God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him I declare nnto 
you." Acts xvii. 22, 23. "■ Paul's spirit was stirred in him, when he saw 
the city wholly given to idolatry," vs. 16. Solon, with all his Grecian wis- 
dom and refinement, was an idolater; showing that the v/orld by wisdom 
knew not God. The Mongolian had the advantage in theory ; the Grecian 
in his moral life. 

Neither partook of that divine power that assimilates the moral at- 
tributes of our nature to those of Him who is not only the fountain of all 
intelligence, but the source of all holiness and purity. We, by no means 
undervalue human learning, but that system of human intelligence, that 
ignores the science of divine life, leaves man undeveloped as to his higher 
nature. The bread of life makes the man. To partake of the higher 
nature, we must " See it as it is." We must associate with the Messiah 
through His word ; be conformed to His revealed image, in order to be 
made like Him. 

The third person in our comparison is the Hebrew Solomon. His his- 
tory is familiar to all Bible readers. We simply compare his education 
with that of the Mongolian and the Grecian. As to physical development 
there was nothing peculiar. He was not a nomad. His life was rather 
sedentary than active. As to his physical. training he had no advantage 
over the Greek or the Scythian. His habits were rather calculated to 
weaken his physical constitution. In his latter years his practices were 
those of the Babylonian and Persian monarchs. The Mongolian had five 
hundred wives; Solomon, seven hundred "princesses," and three hundred 
" concubines " — " the greatest part of whom were recruited from nations 
with whom an alliance had been strictly prohibited." As to Solomon's in- 
tellectual education, he had a decided advantage over even the Grecian 
Solon. When about to succeed his father David to his vacant throne, 
Solomon went to Gibeon, to one of the great high places; where he offered a 
thousand burnt ofierings upon that altar. 1 Kin. iii. 4. 

'' In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a drea^i by night : and 
God said. Ask what I shall give thee. Give Thy servant an understanding 
heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad ; for 
who is able to judge Thy so great a people? 

And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 
And God said unto him. Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not 
asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast 
asked the life of thine enemies ; but hast asked for thyself understanding 
to discern judgment ; Behold, I have done according to thy words : lo, I have 
given thee a wise and understanding heart; so that there was none like 
thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I 
have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor: 
so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days." 
1 Kin. iii. 5, 9-13. 

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, 
and largeness of heart, even as the sand that (is) on the sea shore. And 
Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 209 

all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men ; than Ethan the 
Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol : and his 
fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand prov- 
erbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees from 
the cedar tree that (is) in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out 
of the wall : he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, 
and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solo- 
mon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom." 1 Kin. 
iv. 29-34. 

Jesus said, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment 
with this generation, and shall condemn it : for she came from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and, behold, a 
greater than Solomon is here." Matt. xii. 42. 

God appointed Solomon the visible ruler of his people ; and therefore, 
proportioned his wisdom to his charge. As the governor of God's chosen 
people, Solomon, in his day, had no equal among the monarchs of the earth. 
While he remained humble and faithful to his charge, he was abundantly 
prospered ; but, his wealth, and his politi-cal elevation, developed the baser 
elements of his nature. His moral education, at first, healthily developed 
in the schools of the prophets, was afterwards perverted in the school of his 
wives and concubines, till Solomon stood forth as the chief of sensualists. 
Who can read the inspired records of Solomon and Jesus, without feeling 
the force of Jesus' words relative to Himself: A greater than Solomon is 
here. 

The life of Christ was somewhat nomadic. In His early years. He was 
an active carpenter, continuing in that occupation from the age of 13 to 30. 
Entering upon His mission as " the great prophet, like unto Moses," He 
went about doing good. He taught ; He fed ; He healed the sick ; He raised 
the dead; constant in His journeyings, prayers, and labors. Every word 
breathed divine benevolence; every journey was a mission of love; every 
deed was a golden chain connecting man with the great life Giver, drawing 
him onward toward the divine fountain. 

He was, in form, a man ; yet, when necessary, His physical power was 
above the raging tempest : ''Mighty in word and deed." The dead heard 
His voice, and came forth. The sea lost its anger in His presence. He 
was educated, not by man, but by His Father in heaven. The school of 
Christ is, therefore, adapted to the perfect development of every attribute 
of our nature. 

Nomadic life is not properly understood; and, consequently, its mission 
not sufficiently appreciated. Those following such a life, are regarded by 
those dwelling in fixed habitations, as barbarous. 

God evidently intended that every country should be inhabited in the 
ratio of its natural resources; and as that tenantry was to proceed from the 
three sons of Noah a nomadic element was equally necessary as the fixed. 
By one the earth was to be colonized : by the other, cultivated, and its re- 
sources developed. The Scythian, or nomadic population, has always been 
the world's pioneers. As the first colonies, who were such when they left 
14 



210 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

their mother country, their offspring, containing the two classes, the no- 
madic element would soon increase to a number sufficient to constitute the 
nucleus of a new colony. This colony, leaving the mother hive, swarmed 
into some new district. By this endless progression the earth has been 
peopled. It is true, however, that maritime countries have been usually 
settled by a class of what may be termed commercial nomads. 

Assuming, therefore, the correctness of the Bible record, interpreted in 
its natural, grammatical sense, that all the human family sprang from one 
center, we have shown the necessity of the nomadic and fixed elements, in 
order to occupy, cultivate and develop the fields of the earth. 

The idea here advanced, is illustrated in the case of Abram afterwards 
Abraham. God Himself called Abram to a nomadic life; first, from Chal- 
dean idolatry ; then, to a land of promise. He went down into Egypt to 
escape a famine : then returned to the land of Canaan. Abram sojourns 
in that land till God says, " I will make a covenant between rne and thee, 
and will multiply thee exceedingly. Thou shalt be a father of many na- 
tions. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, (high father — W.), 
but thy name shall be called Abraham; (h, for Hamon, multitude— W.) 
for a father of many (multitude of — W.) nations have I made thee. And I 
will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make many nations of thee ; 
and kings shall come out of thee." Isaac, and Jacob, inherited the same 
nomadic life. How honorable, were these God-made Scythians; — nomads 
of the promise — wandering about in " sheepskins and goatskins ; being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented ; (of whom the world was not worthy :) they 
(heirs of the promise — W.) wandered in deserts, and (in) mountains, and 
(in) dens and caves of the earth." Heb. xi. 37. 38. 

It would be very instructive, as well as entertaining, to trace the no- 
madic and the fixed classes of mankind from their origin through all ages 
and nations to the present time, that we might learn which class has been 
the more efficient agent in promoting the interests of mankind in the ap- 
proaching age of the Messiah. A few thoughts, relative to this proposition, 
may not be out of place. 

In presenting these ideas, thoughts and suggestions we shall use the 
terms shepherd, and herdsman; or, simply, shepherd, to denote the nomadic 
class ; and agriculturist to represent the fixed class. The occupation of the 
one is that of pasturing the land; and, consequently has a movable tent or 
house for his dwelling; while the other cultivates the soil through a series 
of years ; and must, therefore, reside in some fixed habitation. The nomad 
is a pioneer cosmopolite; the other is one of the earth's living fixtures. 
We call him an agriculturist, since, from that occupation arise all the varied 
pursuits of civilization and refinement. We are ready to admit that each 
class was designed to fill a sphere quite necessary to carry out the plans of 
Jehovah relative to the future of mankind; but that the nomadic element 
is simply a relic of barbarism, as the Greeks and Romans viewed it ; and 
was to cease before the advancement of civilization, is not quite so sure. 

What has the past history of these two classes fully developed? Let 
us glance at the history of the imperial zone, as compared with the 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 211 

great northern, or nomadic zone. What would be called the zone of em- 
pires, includes seven ancient empires. (1) Egyptian; (2) Babylonian; 
(3) Medo-Persian ; (4) Greco-Macedonian ; (5) Roman ; (6) Arabian ; (7) 
Chinese. These we may call seven human experiments, by the settled, or 
fixed class; seven great efforts to advance the human race to its highest 
state of development. It was the protracted effort of humanism, as agri- 
culturists, dwelling on farms; in villages, towns, and cities; occupied with 
all the industrial pursuits of ancient civilization. Were they successes, or 
failures ? They erected great monuments of human industry ; made hon- 
orable advances in arts and sciences ; multiplied the sources of human life 
to such an extent as to enable mankind to dwell in crowded towns and in 
vast cities; and yet their pursuits begat luxuries; luxuries begat pride; and 
pride begat their ultimate overthrow. Physically, they were moderately 
developed ; intellectually, the masses were without learning. Some of the 
professional men, and a part of their philosophers, poets, orators, and states- 
men, as well as physicians and military officers, were highly educated as to 
human intellect. But, what was their moral education ? 

The great apostle of the Gentiles has fully comprehended the results 
of their systems of moral and religious culture in his very able epistle to 
the Romans. "Because that, when they knew God, (from His works — W.) 
they glorified (Him) not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain 
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing 
themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incor- 
ruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and 
four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up 
to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own 
bodies between themselves : who changed the truth of God into a lie, and 
worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator : being filled with 
all unrighteousness, fornication, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, 
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, im- 
placable, unmerciful : Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which 
commit such things, are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have 
pleasure in them that do them." Rom. i. 21-32. The morals, here de- 
scribed, belonged to the Roman world, which was fully equal to either of 
the other six. The Arabian world was, in practice, about the same, so were 
the other five. Heathen morals were debasing in the extreme. Their mor- 
als were not trained ; they were not cast in the divine mold, and, therefore 
were not suited to man's moral improvement. Man cannot be said to be 
morally developed, unless his affections are so trained as to have God as his 
supreme and his neighbor equal to himself. Heathen civilization culti- 
vated the intellect without the heart. It leaves man without any fitness to 
relish the moral beauties of the Messiah's reign. Crowds, luxury, and cor- 
ruption are sisters. The greater the mass, on a given space, and the greater 
the luxury, without divine teaching, the more degraded will be the morals. 
Man's morals are in the direct ratio of God's instructions ; and, inversely, 



212 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

as the mass and luxury. Corruption of the heart is contagious. Put the 
depraved into quarantine, perpetual, if the many are to be saved. 

We have already dwelt upon nomadic life in the great northern field. 
The mission of the nomadic class has two very distinct features : (1) To 
people the earth ; (2) To preserve its morals. The two great empires which 
now control the destinies of the world are composed of those that were 
originally nomadic tribes. The same is true of all the kingdoms of Europe. 
The old empires had no material suited to Jehovah's work of the last days. 
A new man had to be constructed. 

We have been occupied in sketching the history of the tenants of 
Asiatic Russia, from the time that the earth was divided between the three 
sons of Noah ; Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Leaving out Ham and his pos- 
terity, as inheriting Africa, we have confined our narrative to the de- 
scendants of Shem and Japheth, since they spread east, north, and west. 
The European race is denominated Japhetic ; not because Japheth ever 
resided in Europe; but, for the reason that families of his descendants, in 
after years, emigrated from northern, and middle Asia, to the wilderness 
plains of central and eastern Europe. Hence, the northern parts of Asia, 
and eastern Europe are principally of the Japhetic families, while western, 
southern, and northwestern Europe, with the British Islands, were Shem- 
itic ; mixed with the posterity of Ham. 

We have examined the tenants of the great bear field that we might 
fully understand the admixtures of blood flowing in the veins of the Rus- 
sian. We have found that he is the product of not less than one hundred 
tribal nationalities speaking forty different languages : That these tribal 
nations, in the north, are principally Japhetic, with a large admixture of 
Shemitic blood mingled more or less with the families. We have followed 
these mingling elements, under the four great empires, as they spread over 
the nomadic zone, situated north of the zone of empires. We have traced 
them as they have left their parent Asiatic hives, and, moving westward, 
have seen them light on the immense plains of Europe — followed them 
as they spread over that new country. Such discordant elements could 
not dwell together in peace. Hence, for some centuries, they continued 
their nomadic life; mingling races; contending for the possession of the 
fertile districts; at one time, crowding upon the latter Greek, and the 
Roman empires ; then pushing westward and northward they planted 
multitudes of colonies in all parts of Europe. European Russia was prob- 
ably first occupied by the Lapps and Finns ; then by the great Keltic emi- 
gration; after that by the Scythian, Gothic, or German emigrants, who 
were driven further north and west by the Slavonians. 

Each of these immense families married and mingled their blood, 
more or less, with all the others. Hence, new families were multiplying 
till about the middle of the 9th century, when the Russian first appears, a 
new man, formed to carry out a great mission in the closing up of Gentile 
domination. 

" The name of Russian was first divulged, in the ninth century, by an 
embassy of Theophilus, emperor of the East, to the emperor of the West, 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 213 

Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by the en- 
voys of the great duke, or chagan, or czar, of the Russians. In their jour- 
ney to Constantinople, they had traversed many hostile nations; and they 
hoped to escape the dangers of their return, by requesting the French 
monarch to transport them by sea to their native country. A closer ex- 
amination detected their origin ; they were the brethren of the Swedes and 
Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable in France; aud- 
it might be justly apprehended that those Russian strangers were not the 
messengers of peace, but the emissaries of war. They were detained, while 
the Greeks were dismissed; and Lewis expected a more satisfactory ac- 
count, that he might obey the laws of hospitality or prudence, according to 
the interests of both empires (A. D. 839, twenty-two years before era of 
Rurik. In the 10th century, Liutprand speaks of the Russians and Nor- 
mans as the same Aquilonares homines (north men. — W.) of a red com- 
plexion). This Scandinavian origin of the people, or at least the princes, 
of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated by the national annals and the 
general history of the North. The Normans, (north men. — W.) who had 
so long been concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, suddenly burst 
forth in the spirit of naval and military enterprise. The vast, and, as it is 
said, the populous regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were 
crowded with independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed 
in the laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy was 
the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the Scandinavian 
youth. 

Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the 
banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels 
and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The 
Baltic was the first scene of their naval achievement ; they visited the east- 
ern shores, the silent residence of Fennic and Slavonic tribes, and the 
primitive Russians of the Lake Ladoga paid a tribute, the skins of white 
squirrels, to these strangers, whom they saluted with the title of Varan- 
gians, or Corsairs, (merchants. — W.) Their superiority in arms, discipline, 
and renown, commanded the fear and reverence of the natives. In their 
wars against the more inland savages, the Varangians condescended to 
serve as friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice of conquest, ob- 
tained the dominion of a people whom they were qualified to protect. 
Their tyranny was expelled, their valor was again recalled, till at length 
Rurik, (a Varangian. — W.) a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a 
dynasty, which reigned above seven hundred years." — Gibbon. 

It is said that Rurik was invited by the Slaves of Novgorod to come 
and rule over them. Rurik, with his two brothers Sineous and Truvor, 
having a small army, took possession of the country south of the gulf of 
Finland, lakes Ladoga, Onega, and Beloe in 861-2, and laid the foundation 
of the first Russian monarchy. His brothers, leaving no issue, their prin- 
cipalities were joined to that of Rurik, Novgorod. Russia has had but two 
dynasties: (1) That of Rurik, from A. D. 861 to A. D. 1598—737 years; (2) 
The house of Romanoff, which is the present reigning family ; a house 



214 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

nearly allied to that of Rurik. It is correct to say that the Russian empire 
is composed of a Slavonian body and a Scandinavian brain. The Scandina- 
vian race has furnished the Russian dynasties. The two distinctive ele- 
ments will appear in Russia's progressive history of 1,023 years. 

Russian history naturally divides itself into the following periods : 
(1) the embryotic period, which describes its elements separately ; (2) the 
period of its infancy, including Russian power, under its various chiefs 
who were Russians or Slaves, and covering Russian history, from the time 
that the various Asiatic families arrived in Europe, to the commencement 
of the first Scandinavian dynasty under Rurik, A. D. 862. The first two 
periods have been examined in part. History is rather reticent as to the 
early years of Russia's infancy. Much of it is somewhat traditional. (3) 
Russia's childhood includes the first dynasty, to the close of the reign of 
the Grand-Dukes of Moscow. During this period was the Mongolian con- 
quest. (4) The period of Russia's youth extends from A. D. 1505 to A. D. 
1682, and includes the reign of the Czars of Muscovy. (5) Russia's man- 
hood extends from A. D. 1682 to— the great conflict. (6) Russia during the 
age of Subjugation — or Messiah. (7) The Russian territory on the New 
Earth, physical changes. 

3. The first Scandinavian Dynasty — Rurik. This period extends 
from A. D. 862 to A. D. 1505 — 643 years — under 50 sovereigns. It covers 
the periods of the Dukes of Kiew; Grand-Dukes of Waladimir; and the 
Grand-Dukes of Moscow. In our progressive sketch of Russian history we 
propose to notice those events in each period of her development that will 
have a tendency to illustrate her special characteristic features. 

Rurik was one of the Varangians who first visited the Russians. 
When invited by the Slavonians of Novgorod to come over and govern 
them, he was somewhat familiar with their country, their manners and cus- 
toms. He invited many other Varangians into the northwestern provinces 
of Russia, who aided him to subdue those that resisted his authority. "As 
long as the descendants of Rurik were considered as aliens and conquerors, 
they ruled by the sword of the Varangians, distributed estates and subjects 
to their faithful captains, and supplied their number with fresh streams of 
adventurers from the Baltic coast. But when the Scandinavian chiefs had 
struck a deep root into the soil, they mingled with the Russians in blood, 
religion, and language, and the first Waladimir had the merit of delivering 
his country from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the 
throne; his riches were not sufficient to satisfy their demands; but they 
listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not a more grateful, 
but a more wealthy, master; that they should embark for Greece, where, 
instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold would be the recompense of 
their service. At the same time, the Russian prince admonished his 
Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompense and restrain, these 
impetuous children of the North. Contemporary writers have recorded the 
introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians; each day they rose 
in confidence and esteem ; the whole body was assembled at Constantin- 
ople to perform the duty of guards; and their strength was recruited by a 



EUSSIAN PHASE. 215 

numerous band of their countrymen from the Island of Thule. On this 
occasion, the vague appellation of Thule is applied to England ; and the 
new Varangians were a colony of English and Danes who fled from the 
yoke o^ the Norman (Scandinavian Waladimir, Duke of Kiew-Russia. 
W.) conquerer. The habits of pilgrimage, and piracy had approximated 
the countries of the earth ; these exiles were entertained in the Byzantine 
court ; and they preserved, till the last age of the empire, the inheritance 
of spotless loyalty, and the use of the Danish or English tongue. With 
their broad and double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended 
the Greek emperor to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he 
slept and feasted under their trusty guard ; and the keys of the palace, the 
treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful hands of the 
Varangians." — Gibbon, 

We have quoted extensively from Gibbon for the purpose of establish- 
ing the Scandinavian relationship to the original Russians in this early 
childhood of Russian power. The family of Rurik was, at that early 
period, the ruling dynasty ; and continued to govern Russia till A. D. 1598. 
The Varangian blood of Scandinavia, the cousins of the Danes and Anglo- 
Saxons, furnished Russia with rulers ; first called Dukes ; then Czars; and 
finally Emperors. 

Under the dynasty of Rurik, the Russian territory and power made 
rapid growth. As early as the 10th century the Russian monarchy covered 
European Scythia ; and had its western frontier, along the Baltic Sea, and 
the Prussian territory. In the north " above the sixtieth degree of latitude, 
over the Hyperborean regions, which fancy had peopled with monsters, or 
clouded with eternal darkness." Their southern boundaries was, at first, 
along the Borysthenes (Dnieper) to the Black Sea. "The tribes that 
dw^elt, or wandered, in this ample circuit, were obedient to the same con- 
queror ; and insensibly blended into the same nation." The Finnic and 
Slavonian languages were prevalent over all Russia ; the Finnic and Scan- 
dinavian in the North ; and the Slavonian principally in the South. 

In the Ducal age of the Russian monarchy it had three capitals, Kiew, 
Novgorod, and Moscow. There were Grand-Dukes also, of Vladimir, Kiew, 
and Novgorod, belonged to the first era of the monarchy. They were like 
camps, or fairs, where the native tribes congregated for the business of war, 
or for trade. They could not be compared to Constantinople with its three 
hundred churches. Between Novgorod and the Baltic trade was carried 
on, summer and winter; during the summer, through a gulf, a lake, and a 
navigable river; in the winter season, over the hard, and level surface of 
boundless snows. From the neighborhood of Novgorod, the Russians de- 
scended the streams which are tributaries of the Dnieper (Borysthenes) ; 
their canoes, of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age. Furs of 
every species, the spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle, and 
the whole produce of the North were collected and discharged in the maga- 
zines of Kiew. The month of June was the ordinary season of the de- 
parture of the fleet ; the timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and 
benches of more solid -and capacious boats; and they proceeded without 



216 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

obstacle down the Borysthenes, as far as the seven or thirteen (the French 
engineer says thirteen — W.) ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed, and 
precipitate the waters of the river. At the more shallow falls it was suf- 
ficient to lighten the vessels; but the deeper cataracts were impassable; 
and the mariners, who dragged their vessels and their slaves six miles over 
land, were exposed in this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. 
At the first island below the falls, the Russians celebrated the festival of 
their escape ; at a second, near the mouth of the river, they repaired their 
shattered vessels for the longer and more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. 
If they steered along the coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind 
they could reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shores of Ana- 
tolia (Asia Minor — W.); and Constantinople admitted the annual visit of 
the strangers of the North. They returned at the stated season with a rich 
cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece, and the spices of 
India. Some of their countrymen resided in the capital and provinces; 
and the national treaties protected the persons, efifects, and privileges, of 
the Russian merchant. — G. This communication was kept open, and in 
use for centuries. During the first two centuries the Russians made four 
attempts to plunder the treasures of Constantinople. The results were 
various, but the object and the means were the same in each of these naval 
expeditions. 

The Russian merchants had seen and tasted the southern luxuries. 
The city of the Csesars presented too many attractions to be resisted by 
these tenants of the cold and comparatively sterile regions of the North. 
Their own countrymen, residing in Constantinople, or in its vicinity, pic- 
tured their southern homes in the most fascinating colors. These hardy 
north men of Russia finally resolved to exchange their wild residences, in 
the North, for a paradise in the imperial zone. Gibbon says, " They envied 
the gifts of nature, which their climate denied; they coveted the works of 
art, which they were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase ; the 
Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure, and their 
bravest soldiers were drawn from the nations that dwelt in the northern 
isles of the ocean. The Greek appellation of monoxyla, or single canoes, 
might be justly applied to the bottom of their vessels. It was scooped out 
of the long stem of a beech or willow, but the slight and narrow founda- 
tion was raised and continued on either side with planks, till it attained the 
length of sixty, and the height of about twelve, feet. These boats are built 
without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast ; to move with sails and 
oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men, with their arms, and pro- 
visions of fresh water and salt fish." — Gibbon. (1) The first naval raid 
against Constantinople was made by theRussians, with two hundred boats, 
though their entire national strength could have furnished over one thou- 
sand of such primitive vessels. This fleet, but little inferior to the royal 
navy of Agamemnon, of ancient renown, was magnified to an immense 
armament by the timorous Greeks. Had the Greek emperors taken due 
precaution they would never have suffered these war-boats to leave the 
waters of the Borysthenes. The coasts of Asia Minor, after an interval of 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 217 

six centuries, were exposed again to the ravages of these northern pirates. 
Passing through the Euxine Sea, and the strait of the Bosphorus, fifteen 
miles long, in which the fleet might easily have heen destroyed, by the 
larger vessels of the Greeks, they occupied without opposition, the port of 
Constantinople in the absence of Michael, the son of Theophilus, he, then 
being emperor. This first raid was under the Duke of Kiew, A. D. 878. By 
the aid of the garment of the Virgin Mary, which was immersed in the 
sea; and by a seasonable tempest the Russian fleet was induced to retire. 
This first effort of the Russians, though a failure, did not result in any 
special discouragement, relative to other attempts to plunder the city. It 
taught them their own weakness, as well as that of their enemy. Some 30 
years passed before any other effort was made. 

(2) Second Raid, A. D. 908. This second Russian invasion of the 
Greek empire was under Oleg, said to be the guardian of the sons of Rurik 
(younger sons. — W). The Bosphorus was then defended by a chain of 
strong fortifications. To avoid these the Russians drew their vessels over 
the land, or isthmus. This enterprise is described in the national chron- 
icles as if the " Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and 
favorable gale. This raid resulted also in a failure. 

(3) Third Raid, A. D. 938. The leader of the third expedition, was 
Igor, the son of Rurik. Taking advantage of the absence of the Grecian 
fleet against the Saracen, he prepared his armament to attack the city. 

Fifteen broken and decayed galleys, armed on their prows, sides and 
sterns, with abundant Greek fire, were boldl}'- launched against the enemy. 
"The engineers were dexterous ; the weather was propitious ; many thou- 
sand Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the 
sea ; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaugh- 
tered by the peasants and soldiers. Yet one-third of the canoes escaped 
into shallow water; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to re- 
trieve his disgrace and claim his revenge." — G. 

(4) Fourth Raid, A. D. 1015. After a long peace, Jaroslaus, the great- 
grandson of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval invasion. A fleet, 
under the command of his son, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bos- 
phorus by the same artificial flames. But in the rashness of pursuit, the 
vanguard of the Greeks was encompassed by an irresistible multitude of 
boats and men ; their provision of fire was probably exhausted ; and twen- 
ty-four galleys were either taken, sunk, or destroyed. Yet the threats or 
calamities of a Russian war were more frequently diverted by treaty than 
by arms. In these naval hostilities, every disadvantage was on the side of 
the Greeks; their savage enemy afforded no mercy; his poverty promised 
no spoil ; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the hopes of 
revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire indulged an opinion that 
no honor could be gained or lost in the intercourse with barbarians. At 
first their demands were high and inadmissible, three pounds of gold for 
each soldier or mariner of the fleet ; the Russian youth adhered to the de- 
sign of conquest and glory ; but the counsels of moderation were recom- 
mended by the hoary sages. ' Be content with the liberal offers of Caesar, 



218 THE EASTERN (QUESTION, 

is it not far better to obtain without a combat the possession of gold, silver, 
silks, and all the objects of our desires ? Are we sure of victory ? Can we 
conclude a treaty with the Sea? We do not tread on the land; we float 
on the abyss of water, and a common death hangs over our heads.' The 
memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the polar circle, 
left a deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the vulgar, of 
every rank, it was asserted and believed that an equestrian statue in the 
square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Rus- 
sians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople. In our 
own time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, 
has circumnavigated the continent of Europe ; and the Turkish capital has 
been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of 
which, with its naval science and thundering artillery, could have sunk or 
scattered a hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the 
present generation may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, 
of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable." Thus 
speaks Gibbon. 

It seems, from the sketches of history, above given, that the purpose of 
Russia to take Constantinople, did not originate in the brain of Peter the 
Great ; but, that it has been a darling thought of the Russian for more than 
a thousand years. The first Scandinavian dynasty, that of Rurik, as early 
as A. D. 876, began to devise means for the occupation of that wealthy city. 
During the space of two hundred years they sent four armaments to plun- 
der Constantinople. More frequently, by immense sums of gold and silver, 
besides vast quantities of silk, they were bought ofiP. That idea originated 
in the brains of those northern barbarians who had taken up their abode 
in Constantinople, permanently, or who had visited that city as merchants. 
The route from the Baltic Sea to the head waters of the Borysthenes, and 
down that river to the Black Sea; and along that sea through the Bos- 
phorus to the city of the Grecian Caesars, had been long open for commerce. 
The thought that it could be used for piracy was very natural. It soon, 
therefore, became the highway for the northern pirates. 

The prophetic inscription on this equestrian statue in the square of 
Taurus, Constantinople, cannot as readily be traced to its origin. "This 
brazen statue, erected in the square of Taurus at Constantinople, was 
brought from Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed 
to represent either Joshua, or Bellerophon." Bellerophon and Sthenobia, 
wife of Prsetus, King of the Argives, is supposed to have been founded on 
the history of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar. Joshua exterminating the 
Canaanites might have been designed by this brazen statue, but how, when, 
and by whom, the prophecy came there is somewhat diflicult to answer. 
It was .there, however, in the 12th century, and some time before. It is not 
stated that it was on the statue while it stood at Antioch. It was probably 
put there by one that had read and recognized the Russians as the Gog of 
Ezekiel. On this matter we are left in open sea. 

It may be a question in the minds of many persons. If Russia's efforts 
to take Constantinople have extended over a thousand years, how can we 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 219 

account for her repeated failures? The Mongol Tartars and the Turks have 
been the chief agents in the way of her ambitious designs. Under her first 
Dynasty she was subjugated and held more than two hundred and fifty 
years by the Mongolian power. ' Before she had attained to sufficient power 
to undertake the siege of that city it fell into the hands of the Turks. The 
European powers have held her back since the beginning of the present 
century. Let us now continue our sketch. 

Russia's land efforts on the Greek empire were not as able as her naval 
operations. That the reader may discern Russian character and power in 
the tenth century during the early part of their childhood, we give a brief 
sketch of Swatoslaus, the son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Rurik. 
The tribal nations from the Volga to the Danube were marshalled under 
his standard. This Grand-Duke was a great Russian warrior of Scandina- 
vian blood. His physical education partook of the cast of military life in 
the great northern wilds. "Wrapped in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usually 
slept on the ground, his head reclining on a saddle ; his diet was coarse and 
frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, his meat (it was often horse-flesh) was 
broiled or roasted on the coals. Exercise of war gave stability and discipline 
to his army; and no soldier, it may be presumed, was permitted to transcend 
the luxury of his chief." Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, in order to divert 
this Russian duke, iand warrior, from an invasion of his dominions, dis- 
patched an embassy (A. D. 904), with fifteen hundred pounds of gold, to 
induce the Russian to turn his arms against the Bulgarians. The Bulga- 
rians being conquered, Swatoslaus, seized with the Russian mania of plun- 
dering the Greek capital, instead of returning to his own country as the 
emperor expected, turned his face towards Constantinople. From the banks 
of the Danube he marched with a powerful army, composed of Patzinacites, 
Chozars, Russians and Turks, to Adrianople. There " A formal summons 
to evacuate the Roman province was dismissed with contempt ; and Swatos- 
laus fiercely replied that Constantinople might soon expect the presence of 
an enemy and a master." 

The Russians being totally overthrown by the imperial forces fled to 
Drista, a strong post on the Danube. Here the Byzantine galleys, ascend- 
ing the river, completed a line of circumvallation, by the aid of the legions. 
After a siege of sixty-five days, Swatoslaus made an unconditional surren- 
der. " The great duke of Russia bound himself, by solemn imprecations, 
to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe passage was opened for his return. 
After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the Borysthenes ; 
but their provisions were exhausted; the season was unfavorable; they 
passed the winter on the ice ; aud, before they could prosecute their march, 
Swatoslaus was oppressed by the neighboring tribes with whom the Greeks 
entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence." — G. 

Thus terminated the fifth attempt of the Russians, under their first 
Scandinavian dynasty, to take Constantinople. Their failures were as re- 
markable as their untiring perseverance. Their last, and most signal over- 
throw, must reveal to the ordinary observer the movements of the higher 
Buler, and the Disposer of nationalities. If Russia had then succeeded in 



220 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

securing for her capital, the wealthiest and most powerful oity of the im- 
perial zone, with her Scandinavian brain and Slavonian body (a mixture 
of all races), what would now have been the European, and Asiatic nation- 
alities? Firmly seated in the middle or imperial zone, the Roman-German 
empire would soon have submitted ; and the Persian empire would soon 
have followed the downfall of the more western empires. (1) As Russia 
was, under Swatoslaus, a Pagan ; there would have been a fifth, Gentile, uni- 
versal monarchy, contrary to Dan. ii. 44, which makes the fifth kingdom, 
that of the God of heaven, symbolized by the stone becoming a mountain. 
(2) The northern, and middle zones, being thus united, there could have 
been, in the last days, no kings or empires of the "north," and the "south." 
CS) Russia would have failed relative to the colonization of the Jews in 
Palestine. God, who fixes all the national fields, has reserved a certain 
land for the children of Israel, according to their number. When their 
punishment is accomplished that land will be their dwelling place. Russia, 
therefore, could never, for her own selfish interests, include that land in her 
great northern field. God, who had taken so many nomadic tribes, of all 
northern races, to form, in the European wilds, a new empire with all the 
vigor of the higher latitudes, would not allow his plans to be thwarted by 
a removal of the seat of empire to the southern center of luxury and 
effeminacy. Such a change would have dwarfed the Russian monarchy in 
its childhood. The Russian has been formed for some great work. That em- 
pire belongs to the North. Its mission is clearly presented by the prophets 
Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah. The king of the north, of Daniel ; and the 
Gog of Ezekiel, are enemies to the Jewish race, and will have something to 
do with that people after their return. What that work is to be will come 
up in its proper place. 

For the present, we take up the progressive history of the Russian 
power, noticing its developments, revolutions and characteristic changes. 

The Russians converted to Christianity : The Russians, having failed 
in five attempts to plunder the Greek capital, their chiefs and nobles, who 
were of Scandinavian extract, meditated a change in their religion. The 
Russian population had always been Pagan. Those tribes that emigrated 
from Asia to northeastern Europe, were Pagans of every variety ; and, as is 
natural, they brought their gods and their worship with them. The woods 
of Europe were full of idols, altars, priests, and pagan ceremonies. There 
existed among them a spirit of universal toleration. Human sacrifices 
were also quite prevalent. A change of religion, however, is very difficult, 
since its elements, in thought, and habit, flow from the mother to the un- 
born infant, and flows in the living current through expanding infancy, 
childhood, youth, manhood, and strengthens in declining years. " As well 
might the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots." A mere 
nominal change for some selfish purposes, may be professed ; but a radical 
change is the result of divine agency. Of such a conversion the Russian 
chiefs and nobles knew nothing. They simply became converts to Greek 
Christianity. What that was we shall see. The western nations had long 
been converted to Latin Christianity. Missionaries had planted the prin- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 221 

ciples of Roman Catholicism through the ten western kingdoms into which 
the old Roman empire had been divided. Charlemagne, two centuries be- 
fore, had been crowned emperor of the "Holy Roman empire;" and all the 
German nations had professed Christianity. The Russian chiefs and nobles, 
being of that blood, would then be first inclined to the new religion of their 
brothers and cousins, after the flesh. 

History develops that order, first the dukes, chiefs, and nobles, then the 
classes next in order ; and finally, the serfs, or masses. That they were still 
pagan at heart, their lives will abundantly show, as we follow them in their 
conversion. As to their conversion to nominal Christianity, history gives 
the following sketches, which we take the liberty to note : 

"Those fierce and bloody barbarians had been persuaded, by the voice 
of reason and religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, the Christian 
missionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends and breth- 
ren. His (Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. — W.) triumph was tran- 
sient and' premature. In the various fortunes of their piratical adventures, 
some Russian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters 
of baptism ; and a Greek bishop, with the name of Metropolitan, might 
administer the sacraments in the church at Kiew, to a congregation of 
slaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel was sown on a barren soil : 
many were the apostates, the converts were few; and the baptism of Olga 
may be fixed as the era of Russian Christianity. A female, perhaps of the 
basest origin, who could revenge the death, and assume the sceptre, of her 
husband Igor, must have been endowed with those active virtues which 
command the fear and obedience of barbarians. In a moment of foreign 
and domestic peace she sailed from Kiew to Constantinople ; and the em- 
peror Constantino Porphyrogenitus has described, with minute diligence, 
the ceremonial of her recption in his capital and palace. The steps, the 
titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted 
to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the superior 
majesty of the purple. In the sacrament of baptism she received the ven- 
erable name of the Empress Helena ; and her conversion might be preceded 
or followed by her uncle, two interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and 
eighteerTof a lower rank, twenty-two domestics, and forty-four Russian 
merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga. After her 
return to Kiew and Novgorod, she firmly persisted in her new religion ; 
but her labors in the propagation of the Gospel were not crowned with suc- 
cess; and both her family and nation adhered with obstinacy or indifference 
to the gods of their fathers. Her son Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the 
scorn and ridicule of his companions ; and her grandson Wolodomir de- 
voted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments of an- 
cient worship. The savage deities of the North were still propitiated with 
human sacrifices ; in the choice of the victim, a citizen was preferred to a 
stranger, a Christian to an idolater ; and the father who defended his son 
from the sacerdotal knife, was involved in the same doom by the rage of a 
fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made 
a deep, though secret, impression on the minds of the prince and people : 



222 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptize; and 
the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woods 
with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They gazed with admira- 
tion on the dome of St. Sophia; the lively pictures of saints and martyrs, 
the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the pomp 
and order of the ceremonies ; they were edified by the alternate succession 
of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it difficult to persuade 
them that a choir of angels descended each day from heaven to join in the 
devotion of the Christians. But the conversion of Wolodomir was deter- 
mined, or hastened, by his desire of a Roman bride. At the same time, and 
in the city of Cherson, the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated 
by the Christian pontiff; the city he restored to the emperor Basil, the 
brother of his spouse ; but the brazen gates were transported, as it is said, 
to Novgorod, and erected before the first church as a trophy of his victory 
and faith. At his despotic command, Peround, the god of thunder, whom 
he had so long adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiew ; and twelve 
sturdy barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was in- 
dignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. 

The edict of Wolodomir had proclaimed that all who should refuse the 
rites of baptism would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince ; 
and the rivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Rus- 
sians, who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had 
been embraced by the great duke and his boyars (nobles — W). In the 
next generation, the relics of Paganism were finally extirpated; but as the 
two brothers of Wolodomir had died without baptism, their bones were 
taken from the grave, and sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacra- 
ment. 

In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of the Christian era, the 
reign of the Gospel and of the church was extended over Bulgaria, Hun- 
gary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. 
The triumphs of apostolic zeal were repeated in the iron age of Chris- 
tianity ; and the northern and eastern regions of Europe submitted to a 
religion, more different in theory than in practice, from the worship of 
their native idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks, both of Ger- 
many and Greece, to visit the tents and huts of the barbarians ; poverty, 
hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the first missionaries ; their courage 
was active and patient; their motive pure and meritorious; their present 
reward consisted in the testimony of their conscience and the respect of a 
grateful people ; but the fruitful harvest of their toils was inherited and 
enjoyed by the proud and wealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first 
conversions were free and spontaneous; a holy life and an eloquent tongue 
were the only arms of the missionaries; but the domestic fables of the 
Pagans were silenced by the miracles and visions of the strangers, and the 
favorable temper of the chiefs was accelerated by the dictates of vanity 
and interest. The leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of 
kings and saints, held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith on 
their subjects and neighbors ; the coast of the Baltic, from Holstein to the 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 223 

Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard of the Cross; and the 
reign of idolatry was closed by the conversion of Lithuania in the four- 
teenth century. Yet truth and candor must acknowledge that the conver- 
sion of the North imparted many temporal benefits both. to the old and the 
new Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species, could not 
be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace ; and the ambi- 
tion of Catholic princes has renewed in every age the calamities of hostile 
contention. But the admission of the barbarians into the pale of civil and 
ecclesiastical society delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea and 
land, of the Normans, the Hungarians, and the Russians. 

The establishment of law and order was promised by the influence of 
the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science were introduced into the 
savage countries of the globe. The liberal piety of Russian princes en- 
gaged in their service the most skillful of the Greeks to decorate the cities 
and instruct the inhabitants; the dome and the paintings of St. Sophia 
were rudely copied in the churches of Kiew and Novgorod ; the writings 
of the fathers were translated into Slavonic idiom; and three hundred 
noble youths were invited, or compelled, to attend the lessons of the col- 
lege of Jaraslaus. It should appear that Russia might have derived an 
early and rapid improvement from her peculiar connection with the church 
and state of Constantinople, which in that age so justly despised the ignor- 
ance of the Latins. But the Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and 
verging to a hasty decline; after the fall of Kiew, the navigation of the 
Borysthenes was forgotten ; and the great princes of Wolodomir (Vladimir 
— W.) and Moscow were from the sea (Black— W.) and Christendom ; and 
the divided monarchy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of 
Tartar servitude." We have been induced to make this lengthy quotation 
from Gibbon for various reasons ; some of which are the following : 

(1) He has given a very graphic delineation of the introduction, 
spread, and workings of Greek Christianity, among the Russians, in this 
early period of their nationality. We call it '* Greek Christianity," for such 
it was, since the Bible is not named, nor have we any reason to believe that 
it was translated for the people, or used by the missionaries. It was a 
photograph of the religion taught; audits pompous ceremonies practiced 
at Constantinople and throughout the East. 

(2) No one can accuse Gibbon of any partiality for Christianity ; and 
therefore, his confession is worth much ; for, if a spurious Christianity had 
su6h a benine and humanizing influence, what must be the effect of the 
pure, apostolic Christianity. 

(3) The Russians, in abandoning Paganism, renounced the theory of 
their Paganism rather than its practice. The Greek ritual, at Constantin- 
ople, was much more splendid than that of Paganism in Russia, names and 
forms, only being changed. It found them idolaters, in theory and prac- 
tice, and left them fully devoted to its practice. Christianity that has not 
its origin in that system taught by Christ and His apostles has no claims 
to the name of Christian. We are safe, therefore, in the conclusion that 
Russia, having known no other doctrines than those of the Greek Church, 



224 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

has never been converted to Christianity; that a spurious system, part 
Pagan and part formed of corrupted Christianity, spread over Russia in the 
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, which aided Russia in her progress 
towards civilization; but, that during the Tartar subjugation, A. D. 1223 to 
A. D. 1483, it was effaced. 

Having traced the moral and religious training of Russia in her early 
years we are prepared to continue to sketch of her civil history. 

Vladimir left his kingdom to four sons. Jaroslof, prince of Novgorod, 
whose reign was signalized by an unsuccessful attack on Constantinople 
(A. D. 1043), reunited the parts for a short time. This prince did much to 
civilize his subjects ; building towns, erecting schools, and particularly by 
directing the compilation of the first Russian code of laws, the most prom- 
inent item of which was the limitation of the right of family feud, a liiaita- 
tion of which was changed into total abolition after his death in 1054. 
Each of these petty princes in his turn divided his portion of the territory 
among his sons, till the once great and united realm became an aglomera- 
tion of petty states quarreling with each other, undergoing absorption by a 
more powerful neighbor, or being re-divided, Russia was thus divided, dis- 
tracted, warring with each other and with the Poles for half a century. 
Under Vladimir, the Normans (Scandinavians — W.) and Slavonians be- 
came definitely amalgamated. Christianity, as it was called, was an 
efficient agent in accomplishing this work. Still it was not sufficiently 
powerful to keep peace among his numerous offspring. This state of 
anarchy, confusion, and petty warfare dates from the death of Jaroslaf, A. 
D. 1054, and continued, more or less, till 1478. Till the Tartar invasion 
these various divisions of the family of Rurik were in perpetual conflict 
with the Poles. Novgorod had become very powerful through the ex- 
ertions of Jaroslaf. One of the chief factories of the Hanseatic league was 
established in Novgorod in the 13th century. So great was its fame 
throughout Russia, as to give rise to the proverb, '' Who can resist God 
and the mighty Novgorod?" The princes of these states (Kiew, Vladi- 
mir, Novgorod — W.) had each his standing army, and were continually 
quarreling. This period was also marked by the gradual fusion of tVie 
various Slavic races into one, the present Russian race, a process doubtless 
aided by the universal dissemination of Christianity, which . assimilated 
their various languages, manners and customs. 

The Mongol Tartar invasion, A. D. 1223. The vast Mongolian wave, 
which, for years, had been flooding eastern Asia, was now rolling westward, 
and had reached, in 1222, the eastern boundaries of Europe, its track was 
in the direction of European Russia. The Polotzes, a nomadic tribe, who 
ranged over the stepps between the Black Sea and the Don, earnestly re- 
quested the aid of the Russians. Their prayer for aid was promptly 
answered by the Russian princes. But in a great battle, fought (1223) on 
the banks of the Kalka (a tributary of the sea of Azof), the Russians were 
totally routed. Twelve years later (1235) Battu Khan, at the head of half a 
million of Kiptchak Mongols, conquered the east of Russia, destroying 
Riazan, Moscow, Vladimir, and other towns. The heroic resistance of 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 225 

prince George of Vladimir, cost the lives of himself and his whole army 
on the banks of the Siti. The victorious career of the Mongol conqueror, 
was, however, arrested by the impenetrable forests and treacherous marshes 
to the south of Novgorod, and he was forced to return to the Volga. In A. 
D. 1240, he ravaged the southwest, destroying Tchernigof, Galich, and 
Kiew ; swept, like a tornado, over Poland and Hungary, defeating those na- 
tions in two great battles. He was checked, however, in Moravia; and re- 
ceiving at the same time the news of the Khagan's death, he retired to 
Sarai on the Akhtuba (a tributary of the Volga), which became the capital 
of the great khanate of Kiptchak. Thither the Russians repaired to swear 
allegiance to the Khan, and take part in the humiliating ceremonies which 
the barbarous conquerer exacted from his tributa.ries. For more than two 
centuries and a half, Russia was held in abject subjection by the Tartars of 
Kiptchak, whose hordes overspread the southern and eastern provinces, 
and the plains between the Caspian and the Volga, on the banks of which 
river the Golden Horde, or the imperial residence of the Khans of the race 
of Battu, was fixed ; but the interior of the country was left under the rule 
of the native princes. The Grand-Prince of Vladimir, or White Russia, 
continued to be considered the head of the Russian nation, though this 
dignity was disputed, both by arms and by intrigues at the court of the 
Khans, who fomented these dissensions as favorable to the stability of their 
own supremacy. In 1320 the seat of government was removed from Vladi- 
mir to Moscow. The principality of Kiew was finally extinguished (1321) 
by the Duke of Lithuania, who conquered and annexed it to his own do- 
minions. In the meantime, Novgorod (which in 1275 had joined the Han- 
seatic league) had acquired very great commercial importance. But the 
remainder of Russia continued in bondage till the termination of the di- 
rect line of Battu (1361) by the death of Berdi-Bek Khan, gave rise to dis- 
putes for the throne of Kiptchak, and the discord of their oppressors en- 
couraged the Russians ,to endeavor to throw off the yoke. The struggle 
continued for about a century, till at last Ivan or John III. obliterated the 
last vestiges of dependence. 

With the reign of this prince, who married Sophia, the niece of the 
last Greek emperor, commences a new epoch in Russian history. He was 
honored with the surname of Great, and assumed the title of Czar, which 
signifies emperor, but which was more used by his successors. 

What were the effects of the Mongolian conquest? A subjugation by 
such a people as the Mongol Tartars, for two and one-half centuries, must 
have left its foot-prints deeply marked upon Russian character. Of its 
effects one author says : 

" The Mongolian invasion had an evil influence on the political, social, 
and moral life of Russia ; it totally destroyed the elements of civilization, and 
threw the country more than 200 years behind the other states of Europe. 
The principalities of Kief (Kiew — W.) and Tchernigof never recovered this 
crushing blow, and the seat of the metropolitan was removed to Vladimir. 
Their decline, however, made room for the rise of Galich to pre-eminence 
in Western Russia, and under the rule of a series of wise princes it pre- 
15 



226 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

served greater independence than any of the Russian principalities (West- 
ern or White Russia — W.) till, in the latter half of the 13th century, it was 
taken possession of by Kasimir III. of Poland ; and about the same time 
Volhynia was joined to the grand-duchy of Lithuania." 

Our principal object in tracing these great invasions, conquests, and 
revolutions of the Russians, is to discern, as far as possible, the intent of 
tl^ Divine Arbiter in His national arrangements, for the accomplishment 
of His ultimate purposes relative to the earth, and its future occupants. 
It can be readily seen what Russia would have been without the Mon- 
golian conquest and occupation. She had been converted to Greek Chris- 
tianity; had inter-married with the Greek imperial family ; stood at that 
time (13th century) near, if not at the head, next to Germany and Eng- 
land, of European civilization. Her princes and nobles were Scandina- 
vian ; and in a few years, even without any special contests, would have 
been firmly seated upon the throne of the eastern Csesars. The prophecy 
relative to Constantinople would have been fulfilled ; and the Russian 
Caesars would, henceforward, have issued their imperial edicts from the city 
of the " Golden Horn ; " and the Turks would never have secured a 
European home. Such would have been some of the forward movements 
of Russian childhood. Western Rome, at that time, was sunk in luxury, 
ignorance, and debasing superstition; the eastern empire, then occupying 
Constantinople, though more refined than the Latin, had been so cor- 
rupted by their luxuries that they were no longer in a position to resist 
Russian advances ; and, holding the same religious tenets, they would have 
yielded without a struggle. Russia, with her capital in the imperial zone; 
in the land of luxurious abundance, would first have become master of the 
East and West; and afterwards would have sunk into effeminacy; and, in 
her turn, have been subjugated by some other nation issuing from the 
nomadic zone. To accomplish His purposes God allows her to be set back 
250 pears, and kept within her northern field. Russia was becoming 
Tutonic and Scandinavian ; God designed that her monarchy should be 
Turanian ; though mixed with Aryan elements. She was to have a Scan- 
dinavian brain ; but continue to possess a Turanian or Slavonian body. 
Let us not be confused by terms. Countries often change their names. 
Scythia, Sarmatia, Tartary, and Slavonia, (before the dawn of history) were 
the names of the same country. At the time of the Mongolian conquest, 
and from its origin, Russia was confined to northeastern and eastern 
Europe. There was located the furnace in which all the Asiatic tribes 
emigrating from Asia into northern Europe, were to be fused for the pur- 
pose of forming a new man called the " Russian." 

A due mixture of tribal nations had to be kept in the blast furnace in 
order to yield the proper product for the intended machinery. A mixture 
of Shemitic, Hamitic, and Japhetic blood was necessary to form the proper 
man for this northern field. There had to be continued from age to age a 
due proportion between the fixed and nomadic tribes ; giving the greater 
proportion to the nomadic races. Since the empire, which was to be formed 
out of the fused materials, was to. spread over, and occupy the northern, or 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 227 

nomadic zone. When Russia, in the 13th century, was ready to seize upon 
Constantinople as her permanent capital and southern centre, Jehovah 
calls her to defend her northern possessions from an immense army of 
Mongol Tartars (Tatars). Before Russia could recover from their con- 
quests, the Turks, the chief of the Turanians, at that time (15th century) 
exceedingly powerful, had overthrawn the Greek empire, and had pos- 
session of Constantinople. The Turks made Constantinople their seat ,ef 
empire, which has stood as a wall against the northern empire ; and will 
stand till God's mission with that empire is fully accomplished. The 
nature of that mission will be discussed under the Ottoman, or " Turkish 
Phase of the Eastern Question." At present we have Russia's mission to in- 
vestigate. That God has a work for Russian nationality, appears in every 
epoch of her history ; that that work requires that she should develop her 
embryotic elements, her infancy, her childhood, youth, and her incipient 
years of imperial greatness in the nomadic zone, is evident from the fact, 
every effort she has made to take Constantinople (and she has made seven, 
at least) has been a most signal failure. She has been drawn back in a 
most signal manner ; she has been drawn back with a hook of six teeth 
(See mar. Eze. xxxix. 2.) in this century. Her mission will develop as we 
advance in her history. The prophecies require that, during all the eras of 
her development, she should be confined to the nomadic zone ; north of 
the great wall (Turkish empire) which God has thrown westward across 
Asia, and southeastern Europe. That Power that directed the utterances of 
the prophets will so manage the nation as to accomplish the predictions of 
His seers. Our faith in the accomplishment of the Divine predictions can 
not be too strong. 

We have been able to discover two purposes of Jehovah in allowing 
the Mongol Tartar conquest. (1) The first has been somewhat investi- 
gated, viz. to hold Russia to her nomadic zone, that she might in the last 
days accomplish her mission, which will require all the forces of the 
North, and East to be assembled, under one head, upon the mountains of 
Israel. As it is purposed that the Russian should be that empire, every 
southern scheme of Russia, previous to those that belong to that final 
struggle, must, therefore, be defeated. This conclusion is inevitable.. If 
the Tartar conquest had not destroyed the southern plans of Russian con- 
quest, Constantinople would have been the Russian, instead of the Otto- 
man capital; it is very evident that this conquest was designed by Jehovah 
for the accomplishment of His ultimate purpose. 

(2) A further fusion of Asiatic elements was necessary to form and 
temper Russian character. It is said that a seed contains a photograph, or 
miniature picture of the future plant; — its roots, stem, or trunk, branches, 
and leaves. Such a pattern was in the mind of Jehovah, of the taber- 
nacle, which he showed to Moses. Such a photograph of the Russian em- 
pire, existed in the mind of Jehovah ; and through every period of its de- 
velopment. All its elements of construction had to be so arranged, and 
fused, and put together, as to agree with the original pattern. 

What the Russian has been to the present time is precisely what it was 



228 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

designed to be in the Divine mind. This position cannot be controverted 
without denying God's sovereignty over the nations, A perfect history of 
Russia is a copy of that Divine photograph. The Tutonic, or Scandinavian 
elements of the Russian monarchy, forming the brain, was, at times, too 
vigorous and active for its Turanian or Slavonian body. The brain work 
was then checked, and the physical system had to obtain more nourish- 
ment. As in the human system, mind, and body are often antagonistic; 
so, in great empires, there is a formidable warfare, going on between the 
governors and the governed. Europe was the blast furnace; Asia furnished 
the ores for smelting. From Asia, the raw materials which were fused for 
the construction of the Russian empire, were transported. In Europe they 
were fused and prepared for the political edifice. When, therefore, there 
was a deficiency of raw material, a draw was made on the immense Asiatic 
resources. As Asia has furnished Russia with its precious metals, in a 
state of nature, so has it furnished raw national elements. 

The Russian being the great empire of the nomadic zone. To supply 
the European waste of that material by her entering into all the occupa- 
tions of civilization. The Russian monarchy required a constant im- 
portation of that element from Asia. The two hundred and fifty years of 
Mongolian occupation furnished a constant supply of that material. The 
Tartar blood supplied the Russian political system with that needed de- 
ficiency. (3) It is said that the Tartar conquest, threw Russia 200 years 
behind the rest of Europe in civilization. By this modern civilization 
must be intended. It is said that it had a bad influence on the political, 
social, and moral life of Russia ; and totally destroyed its elements of 
civilization. The author that takes such a view of the Mongolian con- 
quest takes that view as a citizen of the world ; and has as his model 
human civilization. In such an aspect, his remarks, made in all honesty, 
would seem to be true ; but in a prophetic sense, they are quite false. 
That government which sustains its purposed relationships to its citizens, 
to its God, to other nations, and to its geographical position, is the most 
perfect. The same is true of nations as of man. That man is perfect, who 
is perfect, in his intended sphere. A man may be morally, and religiously 
upright ; yet officially a transgressor. So a person may be nationally per- 
fect, yet morally a great transgressor. When Paul was serving his nation, 
in the sight of God he was a murderer : I verily thought I ought to many 
things be contrary to the name of Jesus. The Russian empire is recognized 
in prophecy as an evil agent; entering the land of his people for plunder 
and to take a spoil. What we wish to show is simply this, the course that 
the Russian government was taking, at the time of the Tartar invasion, 
was contrary to God's revealed purpose in the existence of that monarchy, 
and, consequently, not pleasing to Him. God disposes of nations in such 
a manner as will finally result in the greatest amount of good to the greatest 
number. That far-seeing power of God seems to man, in its fruits, un- 
wise, and frequently productive of evil. The setting of the Russians back 
two centuries or more in their civilization, was the means of extending 
social, political, and moral life to millions of those nomadic tribes, who, 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 229 

otherwise, would never have been elevated in the scale of human intelli- 
gence. A vast amount of raw material that was cast into the Russian blast 
furnace reduced the temperature for a short period, but the final result was 
that there was a much larger amount of valuable products. This question 
is similar to that often discussed relative to the Crusades. Were they pro- 
ductive of more evil to mankind than good? Those terrible religious 
cyclones destroy everything in their pathway, but they purify the atmos- 
phere. God allows them for the purpose of punishing corruption ; but 
afterwards He brings order out of confusion. 

We shall see the results of that Tartar conquest in our progressive his- 
tory of the Russian monarchy. Our aim is to follow the hand of Jehovah 
in Russian history, being fully pursuaded His acts are full of mercy, kind- 
ness, and perfect wisdom. 

THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY UNDER ITS CZARS OF MUSCOVY. A. D. 1533 TO A. 

D. 1682—149 YEARS. 

During the subjugation to the Mongol Tartars it was the settled policy 
of the conquerers to foment disputes among the Russian grand-dukes and 
nobles ; that, by these divisions among princes, union and centralization 
might be prevented. Their purpose was well accomplished; for, during 
the space of two hundred and fifty years, Russian territory was the theatre 
of civil discord and bloodshed ; the various families of the royal house of 
Rurik disputing titles to the grand-ducal throne ; nobles disputing about 
their estates; opposing races contending for supremacy; in a word, Russia 
was full of tribal factions and disputes for the mastery. 

This state of affairs might have continued had not a division taken 
place among their Tartar enemies. A dispute among rival Khans (kings) 
gave the Russians hope of casting off the foreign yoke. It now required, 
among the births of the noble family of Rurik, some one of extraordinary 
intellect ; and a person that was gifted with extraordinary executive abili- 
ties. Such a personage was found in Ivan III., called, also, John III. 
With the reign of this prince, who married Sophia, the niece of the last 
Greek emperor (Constantine Palseologus), a new epoch commences in the 
history of Russia (A. D. 1462-1505). He was called " the great," and as- 
sumed the title of tzar, or czar (" great king " ), A. D. 1547. He used every 
opportunity to abolish the petty principalities which owed him allegiance 
as grand-duke, and managed so skillfully, that some of the princes volun- 
tarily surrendered their rights, others bequeathed their lands to him ; still 
some were reduced by the force of arms. The reduction of Novgorod cost 
him much labor. A. D. 1478, saw Novgorod added to his dominions. He 
then took advantage of the dissensions between Achmet, Khan of the 
Golden Horde, and Mengli-Gherai, of the Crimean Horde, to deliver his 
country from its state of servitude, by uniting with the latter; their com- 
bined forces overthrew the power of Achmet, A. D. 1480 ; and the kingdom 
of Astrakhan, which rose on its ruins, was not able to cope with new 
Russian monarchy. Through his wife, Greek civilization, was again intro- 



230 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

duced into Russia without the dangers which would have arisen from the 
occupation of Constantinople, which fell into the hands of the Turks, A. 
D. 1453. He sent for architects, founders, coiners, miners, and various 
other artizans, who scattered the monuments of their labor through the 
empire. He fortified many towns, introduced into his court the splendor of 
Byzantine, assumed the title of " Czar of all the Russias," adopted the arms 
of the Greek empire, and united the existing edicts into a body of laws, 
the Soudebnik. He defeated the Poles and Lithuanians, and reunited un- 
der his authority most of the Russian principalities. The embassies of 
Germany, Poland, Venice, the Holy Roman See, with many others, were 
now first seen at Moscow ; and, though the character of Ivan III. is sullied 
by the cruel despotism of his internal administration, he is justly entitled 
to rank as the founder of the Russian empire. 

We cannot view the events which transpired under the reign of this 
great prince without discovering the movements of a higher and control- 
ing power. No one intellect of man is able to effect such vast results with 
such an agency and out of such heterogeneous masses. So many tribes, 
under so many chiefs, each one striving for the mastery. The time had 
come when Russian nationality was gradually to assume the form of an 
imperial despotism ; for no other government could have possessed sufficient 
strength to hold in one body such centrifugal elements. A mixed, despotic 
population must be ruled by despots. No other power could have gov- 
erned the Russian nobles. 

Ivan IV., grandson of Ivan, the great, who was also called " the ter- 
rible," reigned from A. D. 1533 to A. D. 1584 — 51 years. During his mi- 
nority, till 1547, the country was distracted by the contentions of factious 
bojars (nobles) who strove for power. He was assisted by two prudent 
counselors, and his queen, Anastasia Romanoff. During the latter years of 
his reign, after the death of his wife, an insane rage took possession of 
him ; nobles were executed, or banished. Thousands of people were put to 
death ; and, finally, he murdered his oldest son.^ The King of Poland took 
Livonia from him, and the Crim-Tartar made an irruption northward, and 
burned Moscow. One great acquisition marked the reign of this insane 
prince : the conquest of Siberia. Up to this era Russia, though peopled 
from Asia, was confined to Europe. 

Siberia was first made known to the Russians by a merchant named 
Anika StroganoflF; afterwards by a Cossack. The account will, no doubt, be 
interesting to those who are investigating Russian history. It is, in sub- 
stance, as follows : ''A body of wandering Cossacks passed the Ural moun- 
tains in 1580, and found a Tartar kingdom, of which Sibir was the capital. 
The Khan, or ruler, having been totally defeated. Yermack, the Cossack 
chief, took possession of the kingdom, but was afterward surprised and cut 
off by an ambuscade of Tartars. The Russian power spread, and, in the 
course of eighty years, a few Cossacks and hunters had, by their intrepid 
exertions, added to Russia, a territory larger in extent than all Europe 
(6,000,000 square miles — W). However, in extending their conquests, 
they came in contact with the Chinese empire, the military force of which 



RUSSIAN PHASE. " 231 

defeated the Russians on the banks of the Amour, where they were obliged 
to terminate their progress, and which river formed the line of demarkation 
between the two empires. 

The mines and furs of Siberia render it valuable to the Russians, but it 
is most noted as the place of banishment for those who have fallen under 
the displeasure of the Russian government. Many an unhappy exile has 
here dragged out a miserable existence, to which death would have been 
preferable. These wretched victims of state intrigues and ruthless des- 
potism, have contributed greatly toward the civilization and improvement 
of portions of this country. The number of exiles was augmented by the 
banishment to this dreary region of hundreds of the unhappy Poles, whose 
greatest crime was a firm attachment to an oppressed country. The exile 
of great officers of state has frequently been attended with all the mystery 
which characterized the seizures of the inquisition. Often some deserving 
man, unconscious of having committed any crime worthy of so severe a 
punishment, found himself suddenly in the hands of the officers of justice. 
If he asked the cause of his seizure, he was commanded to be silent; if he 
begged to take leave of his family, his request was refused. He sank into 
the stupor of despair, and awakened again to a sense of hope forever lost, 
as he found himself upon the fatal sledge which pursued its rapid path 
to the hated place of exile." — Cott. Cyc. The future regeneration of this 
land and its population, will be noticed under a future division of Russian 
history. 

His son, Theodore (1584-98), was a feeble prince, who intrusted his 
brother-in-law, Boris Godounof, with the management of aflfairs. Godou- 
nof was a man of rare ability and intellect, and proved himself an able 
administrator. The Russian dominion in Siberia was consolidated, numer- 
ous towns and fortresses were erected in the south as barriers against the 
Crim-Tartars, the Greek Church in Russia was declared independent of 
the patriarch of Constantinople. Theodore, who died childless, was the 
last reigning monarch of the house of Rurik. With Theodore ends the 
first Scandinavian dynasty of Russia. The male line of the house of 
Rurik, which had ruled under fifty-six sovereigns for 736 years, now be- 
came extinct. 

Rulers of all nations should be educated with great care, and should be 
most profound in every department of useful knowledge; yet education 
cannot impart natural abilities. There must be strong physical powers ; 
and a volume of brain; sound, and well balanced, as well as properly de- 
veloped. Various varieties of the human family are distinguished by the 
size and shajje of their skulls, or brain development. Blumenbacl reckons 
five varieties, viz : (1) the Caucasian, (2) Mongolian, (3) Ethiopian, (4) 
Malay, (5) and American. Dr. Prichard makes a greater number of varie- 
ties, dividing the Caucasian of Blumenbach into Syro- Arabian, or Semitic, 
and the Aryan or Indo-Germanic. In the Semitic, or Syro-Arabian, na- 
tions exchanged the simple habits of wandering shepherds for the splendor 
and luxury of Nineveh and Babylon. The Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, 
or Japetic nations were noted for their perfection of human dialects, 



232 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

destined to become, in after times and under different modifications, the 
mother tongue of the European nations. Dr. Latham has given another 
classification. Cuvier reduces the five classes of Blumenbach to three, viz., 
the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian, making the Malay and Ameri- 
can, varieties of the Mongolian. " In northern Asia," says Dr. Prichard, 
"most of the inhabitants have the pyramidal and broad-faced skulls." 
The classification of Dr. Latham is into 1. Mongolidse; 2. Atlantidfe ; 3. 
Japetidse. Dr. Prichard makes but one race or original centre ; Dr. Latham 
has two at least. Dr. Prichard gives the Aryan or Indo-Germanic family 
an Asiatic origin, while Dr. Latham makes it European. Dr. Latham puts 
the Jews, Ethiopians, and Canaanites into the same variety of Atlantidse, 
which does not seem to be correct. The classification of Cuvier we think 
quite simple, and on the whole, as faultless as either of the other classifica- 
tions. Dr. Prichard's objection to the term " Caucasian," does not appear 
to be very serious. Caucasian does not necessarily imply that mankind 
originated on mountain heights. Language, as a test of origin, is by no 
means faultless. It is often the result of new, and later associations. Two 
children (a male and female) may be born of German parents, reared in 
infancy by French; spend their childhood among Arabs; their youth 
among the Turks, and give rise to a numerous family in Central Asia. 
Their language changes with the thought and association, but their skulls 
and faces are still German. The three great emigrations from Asia, viz., 
the Keltic, the Scythian, Gothic, or German, and Sarmatian, or Slavonic, 
are the most easy solution of western population. The Germans, Goths, or 
Scythians, were from southwestern Asia, and were evidently Shemitic. In 
their emigrations, to the east; then, north; afterwards to the northwest, 
must have mixed them more or less with Japetic families, but not sufficient 
to change their classification. The German we would call a Semitic 
(Shemitic) family. This subject has been investigated under the " British 
Phase of the Eastern Question," and will come up again under the Jewish 
or " Hebrew Phase." 

These remarks are sufficient to establish the fact that the Russian 
family or dynasty of Rurik, which continued seven hundred and thirty-six 
years, was German, Norman (north men), or Scandinavian, while the 
people, or body governed, was Slavonian ; Scandinavian brain, with a 
Slavonian body ; the fixed, or civilized brain, with a nomadic body. This 
distinctness of the Russian controling intellect, and the jDeople or ma- 
chinery guided by it, must be noted in our history of the Russian empire. 

THE SECOND, OR ROMANOFF DYNASTY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, A. D. 1598- 

1884. 

We have seen the Scandinavian Rurik pass out of Scandinavia into 
northern Russia; and by him and his family, rule for 736 years; during 
which time the raw elements from Asia were fused and moulded into an 
empire. We have noted, also, that for the government of that empire, 
were required great intellect and executive abilities of the first class. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 233 

That, to secure such a brain and such administrative power, a member 
(Scandinavian) of the Germans (cousin of the British) was selected by- 
Jehovah ; a first class brain with first class physical powers. Is the House 
of Romanoff the continuation of that royal blood ? This position, that the 
families of Rurik and Romanoff, are of the same blood, Scandinavian, 
Norman, or German, we now proceed to establish. The history of the 
House of Romanoff will furnish us with the necessary proof. The follow- 
ing brief historic sketches will abundantly establish the relationship be- 
tween the two families. 

"The Rurik dynasty, which for seven centuries, had held power in 
Russia, ended with the childless Feodor (Theodore — W.) in .1598. His 
legitimate heir, Dimitri, was assassinated, and the land became the prey of 
anarchy, which, with the ambition of rapacious neighbors, menaced the 
burial of its independence. The throne was offered to the Polish mon- 
arch, and all but given, when a successful effort to save the nationality 
threw off the yoke and drove the Poles from Moscow. A convocation of 
deputies from the nobles, priests, and burgesses, of each province, was held 
in 1613, to choose a czar, and Michael Romanoff was selected. The Ro- 
manoffs were of the leading families of Muscovy, having their origin in an 
adventurer from western Europe, who settled in the land in the fourteenth 
century. Michael was then a youth of seventeen. His kin had suffered 
sorely in the previous years of lawlessness; he himself had spent many 
years in exile and in prison; his illustrious father, who had been am- 
bassador to Poland, was languishing in prison at Warsaw. Alive to the 
dangers and cares which hedged about the regal dignity in that troublous 
land and time, the young czar elect declined the honor. His scruples were 
overcome; he was crowned at Moscow, and he reigned for two and thirty 
years. The wars he waged with the Poles and with the Swedes cost him 
broad provinces, -but his reign was very popular, and well calculated to 
establish his family upon the throne. We are told that he forbade the use 
of tobacco as injurious to health and strength, and that he issued a sort of 
Maine-law ukase against ardent beverages. He obtained his father's re- 
lease from the Polish dungeon, and wisely admitted him to a share in the 
government, where his prudence and moderation were of great profit." 

— c. a 

Another sketch will establish the relationship between the Rurik and 
the Romanoff families. 

"Andrew Kobyla emigrated from Prussia to Moscow in 1341, and en- 
tered the service of the then grand-duke, Simeon the fierce. Andrew's 
descendants became bojars (nobles — W.) early in the 15th century, their 
possessions being located in the government of Vladimir and district of 
Jurief Polskoi. The bojar Roman Jurievitch, the fifth in direct line from 
Andrew, died in 1543, leaving a son and daughter, the latter of whom be- 
came czarina by her marriage with Ivan the terrible; while the former, 
Nikita Romanovitch Jurief, by his nuptial with the princess of Sudal (a 
direct descendant from a brother of St. Alexander Nevskoi), was also allied 
to the royal race of Rurik. Nikita was one of the regency during the 



234 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

minority of Feodor I. ; and his eldest son Feodor, under the name of 
Philarete, was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and metropolitan of 
Rostof during the reign of the false Dimitri. The Romanoffs supported 
that party who tendered the Russian crown to the Polish prince, and 
Philarete had gone with that view to Poland, when a sudden outburst of 
national sentiment put a stop to these negotiations, and the unlucky envoy 
was in consequence thrown into prison by the enraged Poles. The national 
party now proceeded to the election of a native sovereign, who should be 
as closely allied as possible by blood to the race of Rurik ; and after much 
hesitation and many rejections they chose Mikail Feodorovitch Romanoff, 
the son of the imprisoned metropolitan, and the representative, through 
his grandmother, of the royal House of Rurik, Feb. 21, 1613. This selec- 
tion, which had been made by the higher nobility, and the clergy, was 
rapturously applauded by the people; and though the new czar was not 
quite seventeen years of age, the general desire of all classes to conform to 
his ordinances rendered the cares of government comparatively light." — - 
L. U. K. His son, Alexei Mikailovitch 1648-76), was his successor. He 
carried on war against the Poles and Swedes, and became very noted as a 
legislator. Alexei was twice married, and left by his first wife two sons, 
Feodor and Ivan, and many daughters, and by his second wife, one son, 
Peter. His eldest son Feodor (1626-82), was a prince of great talent and 
foresight, and labored with success to reduce the power of the aristocracy ; 
but being of a very weak constitution he died at the age of twenty-five 
without issue, leaving the throne by his will to his half brother, Peter, as 
his full brother, Ivan, was an imbecile. It was seven years after this be- 
fore Peter obtained possession of the throne. It is worthy of note, that, 
till the last two czars, all the emperors of the House of Romanoff, have 
ascended the throne before they were twenty years of age. It is sufficient 
here to say that the Russian empire has had but two dynasties, and that 
the second, which is the House of Romanoff, and of the same race, is the 
present imperial family of Russia. 

We shall sketch Russian history from the accession of Peter, known 
over the world by the title of "Peter the Great." 

Such was the character of this extraordinary personage that many 
seem to think that he originated the empire. This, it is seen, is not cor- 
rect ; neither was he the father of the Romanoff dynasty. Still his life and 
acts are worthy of special notice. 

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE UNDER PETER THE GREAT. 

It is a matter of great interest to follow the growth and developments 
of a man whom the Lord calls to a special work. Three such persons are 
very conspicuous in profane history. Many others might be named, but 
three claim our special notice, viz., Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, 
and Peter the Great. The first two have a place in prophecy. Cyrus is 
called by name 200 years before his birth. Alexander is not called by 
name, but his nation is called by name. Both are God's agents special 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 235 

work ; Cyrus to overthrow Babylon, and deliver his captive people ; Alex- 
ander to overthrow the Persian empire. After their special work was done 
they were no more than ordinary men. 

As to Cyrus, he is not only named, but his work is definitely assigned 
him : " That saith of Cyrus, (He is) my shepherd, and shall perform all 
my pleasure : even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the 
temple. Thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, 
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him ; 
and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved 
gates ; and the gates shall not be shut ; I will go before thee, and make the 
crooked places straight : I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut 
in sunder the bars of iron. And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, 
and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the 
Lord, which call (thee) bj'- thy name, (am) the God of Israel. For Jacob 
my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy 
name. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me." Is. xliv. 
28, and xlv. 1-5. Please read Cyrus' decree after the fall of Babylon. 
" Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia. All the kingdoms of the earth hath 
the Lord God of heaven given me ; and He hath charged me to build Him 
a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah." Ez. i. 2. 

The work of Alexander is also clearly defined by the symbols of the 
ram (Persia) and he-goat (Grecia). No one can read Xenophon's history of 
Cyrus without seeing in his youth a person of very extraordinary abilities; 
a person, born and educated for some great purpose. It was the power of 
those great peculiarities that adapted him to the nature of his mission. He 
seemed among his countrymen somewhat as the Savior appeared among the 
Jews ; and the reason of his great superiority was that Jehovah was edu- 
cating him for his noble, and highly honored mission. 

Relative to Peter the Great the Divine hand is truly visible. 

It is true that the Russian Czar is not called by his name Peter, but his 
government, his country, and its chief, have names (see Eze. xxxix). This 
great power had a work to accomplish in the last days ; that work requires 
a certain imperial fitness for the accomplishment of that work ; it had to be 
educated for the work ; some person had to be raised up and educated so as 
to prepare the government for its work. The time had come when the Rus- 
sian empire was to take an elevated stand among the most powerful na- 
tions of the earth. Without some speedy and extraordinary development 
of its entire resources, such a position could not be taken nor sustained. 
Peter the Great was' evidently raised up and educated for that special work. 
The agent had to be fitted for its agency. Let us see what work he had to 
accomplish ; and in what manner he was fitted for the accomplishment of 
that work. We shall make such a summary of his life and actions as will 
illustrate his character and mission. He was not born to an easy quiet 
fortune. Between Peter and the throne were other heirs ; who were re- 
solved to exclude him from the vacant throne. The grand duchess Sophia, 
a woman of superior ability, and of great energy, but of unbounded ambi- 
tion, disdaining seclusion, customary among the females of the royal 



236 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

family, she showed herself to the Strelitz (standing army, that sometimes 
numbered 50,000), excited them to fury by an ingenious story of the assas- 
sination of her brother Ivan (who was an imbecile), and then let them 
loose on the supporters of Peter's claims. After a carnage of three days, 
during which more than sixty members of the most noble families of Rus- 
sia were massacred, she succeeded in obtaining the coronation (July, 1682) 
of Ivan and Peter as joint rulers, and her own appointment as regent. Up 
to Peter's coronation his education had been greatly neglected ; he could 
neither read nor write. Lefort, a Swiss, one of his companions, taught him 
not only Russian, but several other European languages. His knowledge 
of the military art and of mathematics came from Lieut. Franz Timmer- 
man, a native of Strasburg. The sciences and arts of civilization were 
taught him by Lefort, by showing how much, in these points, Muscovy 
was behind the rest of* Europe. His army was undisciplined. Lefort 
formed a small military company out of the young men of noble family 
who attended Peter, and caused Peter himself to pass, by regular steps, 
from the lowest (that of drummer) to the highest grade in it, rendering 
him all the while amenable to strict discipline. He sent abroad for tried 
soldiers, — thousands of Frenchmen, Scots, Germans and Swiss, — and learned 
the different corps. He made merit the only ground of promotion. Russia 
had no navy. Peter was born with such a dread of water that when he saw 
a river he shuddered. Of this he cured himself by a vigorous morning regi- 
ment of icy shower-baths. 

Peter made himself a practical mariner ; afterwards a ship-carpenter. 
A. D. 1698 he visited Holland, under an assumed name. In Holland he 
worked as an ordinary hand among the shipwrights in the dock-yards ; 
after which he went to England. In the royal dock-yard at Deptford, 
spurning all ceremony and attention he hewed and hammered like any 
other frugal, industrious carpenter. After he had become a master-work- 
man he returned home ; and Russia soon had a navy. There were frequent 
uprisings among the soldiery. These were put down by Peter, in the most 
resistless and daring manner, making terrible examples, till all seditions 
came to an end. He ruled with absolute despotism ; yet it had for its chief 
object, the aggrandizement of the nation, and not self. If any thing stood 
in the way of his grand schemes, it was crushed without remorse. The 
councils of the boyards and nobles was a restraint upon his will : As a cob- 
web, it disappeared. He hated priestcraft as an antagonistic despotism ; 
he crumbled the power of the church, and declared himself its patriarch 
and head. When he founded St. Petersburg, the clergy swelled the popu- 
lar dislike to its unhealthy marshes, by proclaiming that an image of the 
Virgin, which had been removed to the church on the Neva, shed visible 
tears thereat. Peter strode into the church, seized the sniveling doll, 
gouged its eyes, and chuckled to find a small reservoir of oil, so contrived 
that a little stream could trickle down its checks. He entered the circle of 
fashion, and decreed that the dress of his people should conform to that of 
western Europe. He was an enemy to beards, and by taxing them pro- 
moted shaven chins. One of his wisest social requisitions was that which 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 237 

sent young Russians on foreign tours ; it helped to raise the Russian noble 
from a drunken, sensual, brutal boor toward a polished gentleman. Peter 
was drunken and sensual, in a degree that would have swamped an ordi- 
nary man ; but he was not an ordinary man, and he knew the worth of 
virtues and attainments that he did not practice. His intimate friends 
were principally foreigners, or Russians who had traveled abroad. Lefort, 
the Swiss, was his chief adviser; Menschikoff, who began life as a pastry- 
cook, and ended by founding a princely house still foremost in the empire 
was another ; and wherever Peter found useful talent, whether in a Mus- 
covite boyard or in a Dutch skipper, he encouraged and employed it. 

His domestic habits were as singular as his public life. He married 
young ; brutally abused his wife ; and was not overly nice about his mis- 
tresses. The last of these mistresses became his second wife. She was a 
very remarkable woman. First a Swedish peasant girl (mark the Scan- 
dinavian family), then the wife of a dragoon, then a Russian captive; the 
mistress of Gen. Bauer ; then of Prince Menschikoff, she was sold by the 
latter to his master, and became czarina. Martha, her original name, was 
changed to Catharine. Her excellent good nature proved a resistless charm 
for impetuous Peter, one that could calm his wildest fits of passion. She 
was his companion m the camp. It is said that the truce which saved his 
army when surrounded by the Turks on the banks of the Pruth, was en- 
tered into by her without even his knowledge. An author has given the fol- 
lowing graphic delineation of Peter the Great : " The great czar went on ; 
rearing an imperial city of splendid proportions and design, on the watery 
desert of the Neva; waging battle with Turk and Swede and Pole; build- 
ing up fleets of war and navies of commerce ; founding that army which 
has since been brought to the perfection of a machine; careering, like the 
car of the Hindoo idol, over life and happiness and liberty, toward the 
mark of his lofty aims and indomitable energy. In 1716 he journeyed with 
Catharine to Denmark, and thence to Holland, the scene of the hardy toil 
of plain Peter Timmermann. Much had been done since then ; that toil 
was not for naught. At last there came to Peter the Great fate which 
comes to all. He died of strangury, aggravated by exposure to wet and 
cold on a boating excursion, Jan. 28th, 1725." — C. 0. 

We will close this historic sketch of Peter's last years by describing 
his equestrian statue, and its significant meaning. "A colossal statue 
was erected to his memory at St. Petersburg, by the second Catharine. 
The huge block of granite which forms its pedestal, and which weighs 
upward of fifteen tons, was conveyed from a marsh at a distance of four 
English miles from St. Petersburg, and two from the sea. On approaching 
near to the rock, the simple inscription fixed on it in bronze letters, ' Petro 
Primo. Catherina Secunda, MDCCLXXXII,' meets the eye. The same 
inscription in the Russian language appears on the opposite side. The 
area is enclosed within a handsome railing placed between the granite 
pillars. 

The idea of Falconet, the French architect commissioned to erect an 
equestrian statue of this extraordinary man, at whose command a few scat- 



238 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tered huts of fishermen were converted into palaces, was to represent him 
as conquering, by enterprise and personal courage, difficulties almost in- 
surmountable. This, the artist imagined, might be properly represented 
by placing Peter on a fiery steed, which he is supposed to have taught by 
skill, management, and perseverance, to rush up a steep and precipitous 
rock, to the very brink of a precipice, over which the animal and the im- 
perial rider pause without fear, and in an attitude of triumph. The horse 
rears with his fore feet in the air, and seems impatient of restraint, while 
the sovereign, turned toward the island, surveys with calm and serene 
countenance his capital rising out of the waters, oyer which he extends the 
hand of protection. 

This monument of bronze is said to have been cast at a single jet. 
The height of the figure of the emperor is eleven feet ; that of the horse 
seventeen feet ; the general weight of the metal in the group is equal to 
36,636 English pounds. It is said that when the artist had formed his con- 
ception of the design, he communicated it to the empress, together with 
the impossibility of representing to nature so striking a position of man 
and animal, without having before his eyes a horse and rider in the atti- 
tude he had devised. Gen. Melessino, an officer having the reputation of 
being the most expert as well as the boldest rider of the day, to whom the 
difficulties of the artist were made known, offered to ride daily one of the 
Count Alexis Orloff 's best Arabians, to the summit of the steep artificial 
mound formed for the purpose ; accustoming the horse to gallop up to it, 
and to halt suddenly, with his fore legs raised; pawing the air over the 
brink of a precipice. This dangerous experiment was carried into effect 
by the general for some days, in the presence of several spectators and of 
Falconet, who sketched the various movements and parts of the group 
from day to day. In an equestrian statue the horse is the great point ; the 
rider is of little account. The merit of this group consists in the boldness 
with which it rests on the hind legs of the steed, assisted by an allegorical 
serpent of envy that the horse very judiciously spurns rather than topple 
over."— a C. 

There are many features in the life of Peter the Great that deserve 
more attention than we have time to bestow. The work that he accom- 
plished to strengthen the empire by fusing its elements and furnishing for 
it all the attributes of power, was beyond the province of any human being 
to possess by nature. He was an intellectual giant, but a dwarf in such 
moral sentiments as tend to elevate the human species. He was born to 
command. The empire demanded the most exalted executive abilities, and 
it found such in Peter the Great. He found his empire in a semi-barbarous 
state, and left it occupying an honorable station among the great mon- 
archies of the earth ; in the possession of great natural resources ; and pos- 
sessed of a disciplined army and an increasing navy — with a territory ex- 
tending from China to the Baltic. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 239 

J 
THE WILL OF PETER THE GREAT. 

Much has been said of Peter's last will. Since it is supposed to have a 
direct bearing on the Eastern Question, our notice of this extraordinary 
personage would be very unsatisfactory without investigating the contents 
of that singular document. We take it for granted that the will is genuine, 
and, consequently, that it reflects his peculiar modes of thought and lays 
open his far reaching plans, and his imperial policy, relative to Russia's 
greatness and conquests. The following is said to be the will : 

In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, we, Peter the First, 
to all our descendants and successors to the throne and government of the 
Russian nation : 

Having, by the great God of whom our existence, been also endowed 
with the gift of prescience, we view the Russians as called, in the course of 
future events, to the general dominions of Europe. This opinion is 
founded on the fact, that the other European nations have reached a state 
of old age next to caducity, toward which they are journeying with giant 
strides ; hence it follows, that they should easily and undoubtedly be con- 
quered by a people young and new, when it shall have acquired its 
strength and vigor. We view the invasion of the East and West coun- 
tries by the North as periodical movement, decreed among the arcana of 
that Providence that regenerated the Roman people through the invasion 
of the barbarians. 

The emigrations of the polar men are like the flood of the Nile which 
comes at certain periods to fertilize the exhausted lands of Egypt. We 
found Russia a rivulet, and leave her converted into a river; and my suc- 
cessors will find it a sea, destined to fertilize impoverished Europe, and its 
waves will break down all opposing dykes, if my descendants have but the 
wisdom to direct the current. To this end I leave the following instruc- 
tions, which are recommended to their attention, and constant observance. 

1. To have the Russian nation constantly at war, that the soldiery 
may be always disciplined and ready for action. Allow the nation no rest, 
but for the replenishing of the treasury, reorganizing the armies, and choos- 
ing the opportune moment for attack ; making in this manner, peace serve 
war, and war serve peace, in the interests, aggrandizement and prosperity 
of Russia. 

2. To attract, by all possible means, the most eflicient and celebrated 
military ofiicers in Europe, during war, and the highly educated, scientific 
men of all countries, in time of peace, that the Russians may enjoy the ad- 
vantages of other countries, without losing their own identity. 

3. To take part, on all occasions, in the disputes and contentions 
among the states of Europe, especially those of Germany, in which, as the 
nearest, we are the most directly interested. 

4. To subdue Poland ; foment their continued rivalries and disturb- 
ances ; gain their nobles by bribery ; influence their diets, and by intrigue, 
take action in the election of their kings ; form partisan cliques, and for 



240 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

their protection, send them Muscovite troops, to remain in the country, un- 
til the moment of complete occupation. If the neighboring powers make 
opposition, quiet them at once, by dismembering the country, and give 
each a part. 

5. To take what we can from Sweden, and make any attack by her 
a pretence of subjugation. To effect this, separate her from Denmark, and 
likewise Denmark from Sweden, and foment with care all animosities and 
rivalries between them. 

6. To select wives for the Russian princes among the princesses of 
Germany, for the multiplying of family alliances will conciliate interests, 
and by them unite Germany to our cause, and increase our influence in 
that country. 

7. To attend assidiously to forming an alliance with England for our 
commerce ; the assistance of that power we most need, for the building up 
of a maritime force, and she will be of the greatest service in supplying us 
with her gold, in exchange for our lumber and other productions. Con- 
tinual intercourse with her merchants and sailors will accustom ours to 
navigation and commerce. 

. 8. Extend ourselves unceasingly toward the North, the whole length 
of the Baltic, and likewise to the South by the Black Sea. 

9. To take every possible means of gaining Constantinople and the 
Indies, (for he who rules there will be the sovereign of the world) ; excite 
war continually in Turkey and Persia; establish fortresses in the Black Sea; 
get control of the sea by degrees, and also of the Baltic, which is a double 
point, necessary to the realization of our project; accelerate as much as 
possible, the decay of Persia ; penetrate to the Persian Gulf— re-establish, if 
possible, by the way of Syria, the ancient commerce of the Levant ; advance 
to the Indies, which are the great depot of the world. Once there we can 
do without the gold of England. 

10. Obtain and carefully cultivate the alliance of Austria ; support 
(apparently) her ideas of future dominion over Germany ; excite animo- 
sities and rivalries among her princes— thus causing each party to claim 
the assistance of Russia, and exercise over this country a species of pro- 
tection that will prepare for future dominion. 

11. Interest the House of Austria in the expulsion of the Turks from 
Europe, and quiet their dissensions at the moment of conquest of Constan- 
tinople (having excited war among the old states of Europe), by giving to 
Austria a portion of the conquest, which afterwards will or can be reclaimed. 

12. Unite within your borders all the disunited or schismatic Greeks 
now scattered in Hungary and Poland, making ourselves their centre, 
establishing beforehand an independent church by a species of autocracy 
and sacerdotal supremacy. 

13. Sweden dismembered, Persia subdued, Poland subjected, and Tur- 
key conquered, our armies united, and the Black and Baltic Seas guarded 
by our ships of war, it will be necessary to propose separately, and with 
the greatest secrecy, to the coast of Versailles, and afterwards to that of 
Vienna, to divide with them the empire of the universe. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 241 

If one of the two accept this offer, so flattering to their ambition and 
self-love, let her serve to annihilate the other, commencing a contest, the 
issue of which cannot be doubtful ; and Russia may take possession of all 
the East and a great part of Europe. 

If both nations should refuse the offer made by Russia (which is not 
at all probable), it will be necessary to excite quarrels among them, which 
will engage them in a war with each other. Then Russia, improving the 
decisive moment, advances her troops (assembled beforehand) on France 
and Germany at the same time. Two squadrons proceed — one by the Sea 
of Azof, an4 the other by the port of Archangel — filled with Asiatic hordes, 
under the convoy of our armed ships in the Black Sea and the Baltic. 
Advance on the Mediterranean and the ocean, inundate France on one side, 
while Germany is inundated on the other, and these two countries con- 
quered, the rest of Europe will he pass under the yoke without firing a gun. 
Thus may and should be effected the subjugation of Europe." 

There are many remarkable features about this will executed by Peter 
the Great (its genuineness we take for granted), that deserve particular 
notice : Since it partakes somewhat of the nature of a prophecy, and of 
Russia's policy under its various unfolding phases : for Peter claimed from 
God "The gift of prescience." He says : "We view the Russians as called, 
in the course of future events, to the dominion of Europe." If Peter had 
said "Asia," instead of Europe, we should have had some faith in his pre- 
diction, since Ezekiel, God's seer, allows Russia the dominion of Asia, the 
mountains of Israel excepted, for, on those mountains, her military power 
with that of all confederated Asia, by the fierce anger of the Almighty, will 
be annihilated. 

Western Europe can never be Russian. Her single efforts in that 
direction have uniformly been failures. It was never designed that Russia 
should hold the imperial zone. . In her future contest she may hold for a 
time, its eastern section, the Asiatic division, but the European division 
ever has been out of her control, and we think that prophecy indicates that 
it will be in the great future; she is the empire of the north, and to that 
zone she will be confined till her final doom. Why Russia has never suc- 
ceeded in western Europe has a rational solution : (1) She attacks her own 
blood royalty. Russia is and has been, from the origin of the nation, under 
the control of Norman, Scandinavian or German intellect. In her supreme 
rulers, she is simply the peer of the western European nations, since they 
all sprang from the Gothic, Scythic, or Germanic family of the second 
emigration from Asia. (2) Her army is inferior in discipline, and especially 
in race, the soldiers are principally Slavonian, or of the third emigration. 
They are inferior to the Prussians, the French, and the English, and, there- 
fore, could not succeed against them. Equal in mental powers, though 
their high officers may be the inferiority of her soldiery, would insure the 
defeat of all her western aspirations. (3) The European policy of main- 
taining a balance of power will defeat all such Russian dreams. (4) Peter's 
will in itself is a sufficient caveat for the Western Nations. Should Russia 
make any attempt to move westward for conquest either by land or by sea 
16 



242 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the combined forces of Prussia, France, and England, would drive her from 
the seas, and annihilate her armies. (5) The enunciation of the prophets 
contains no western mission for Russia. In the future great national 
struggles, the nations gather under three military standards : (a) that of 
the dragon, which will be the standard for all nomadic and idolatrous 
nations ; (&) the beast (fourth beast of Daniel or the Roman-German empire); 
(c) the false prophet or Mohammedan empire. Satan's empire is composed 
of these three powers. It is not difficult to locate Russia in this contest. 
This will come up, however, under a future division of our subject. It is 
sufficient here to remark, that neither history nor prophecy gives Russia 
any western mission ; it is Eastern Asiatic, as we shall learn in our pro- 
gressive history of the Russian empire. Why, then, has Russia an original 
European location, and seat of empire? A close examination of what we 
have written, will reveal the objects of her European location and her im- 
portant work. 

Northeastern Europe was the only favorable site for the Seminary of 
the Shepherd, or nomadic world, where the elements that were to form the 
empire of the North were to be educated and drilled. The great North- 
western Seminary where the elements of the southern confederacy were to 
be educated had previously been located in Northwestern Europe and in 
the British Isles. The Seminary of the great northern empire was fitly 
located in Northeastern. Europe, both seminaries drew their teachers from 
the same or the Scandinavian, Norman or German family. The North- 
eastern University, with its imperial Capital located at St. Petersburg, 
amid swamps and marshes, near 60 degree of north latitude, on the east 
and west line of central Siberia, a few degrees north of the great line of 
emigration between Asia and Europe, was well chosen to be the place 
of the Shepherd University. Here the northern Shepherds and Nomadic 
tribes, from all northern and central and western Asia, were gathered by 
the great Supreme to be taught and drilled for the special purposes of the 
northern empire in the last conflict. Peter calls to his aid, in the various 
departments of instruction, the most learned from all the nations of 
western Europe, Swiss, French, English and German, those distinguished 
for their knowledge of the sciences of legislation, astronomy, mathe- 
matics, mechanics, of law, medicine, and of war. With such a corps of 
able professors from the most enlightened nations of the West, these tribal 
shepherd nations of Asia were assimilated in their manners and customs, 
fused, moulded, and prepared to be efficient actors in the work of this 
empire of the North. Where in the shepherd zone could have been 
selected a place more suited to the object and the work than Northeastern 
Europe? Why located so far North? To be far away from the tempta- 
tions of the South, and to secure the vigor of those cold and bracing winds 
and northern tempests. It is a location suited to the physical constitu- 
tion of those northern hordes, that are to be educated and fused and 
trained for active workers in the movements of the northern empire. It 
was necessar}'' that those Asiatic shepherds and Nomadic races should have 
all the advantages of European civilization and army and navy drill of 



EUSSIAN PHASE. 243 

those western nations, whose armies they must meet on the mountains 
of Israel. Who cannot see the hand of God in the rise and progressive 
unfoldings, instructions, and military drill of the Russian empire ? 

Peter the Great, like Cyrus the Great, seems to have been raised up to 
instruct and put the Russian empire into that seminary of modern develop- 
ment, which would train and fit her for her future terrible conflicts. He 
was therefore, a man of destiny, an agent of Jehovah for this same pur- 
pose. His whole life was but an aggregate of wonders ; drawing into his 
empire the raw materials of future greatness, and then ransacking Europe 
for laborers, educators and artisans : not only sending agents into those 
countries that occupied the front rank of civilization, but visiting, himself, 
those lands as an ordinary laborer, working in dock-yards, and observing 
everything. He left England (April 1698), carrying with him English 
engineers, artificers, surgeons, artisans, artillery-men, and others in various 
trades and professions, to the number of 500. He grasped all knowledge 
and persons that could in any manner aid him in building up his empire. 
So vast was the mass of semi- Asiatic dough collected from such an im- 
mense variety of mixtures, that it required all the spare leaven of Western 
Europe to leaven the Russian lump. 

The emperor's statement relative to the state of the European nations 
has been demonstrated to be incorrect. So far from being at that time 
(A. D. 1725) in "a state of old age next to caducity, towards which they 
are journeying with giant strides," they have within those 160 years de- 
veloped the fact, that they had not then reached their full vigor of man- 
hood. The French Revolution was then sleeping in embryo. The seeds 
of infidelity were beginning to germinate, and its poisonous atmosphere 
was beginning to circulate throughout Western Europe. If Peter the 
Great could have seen by his pretended "gift of prescience," the sea of 
flames of burning Moscow, and heard the rushing sound of its fiery tem- 
pestuous billows; and have been told that it was to destroy the winter- 
quarters of a French army under a Corsican ; if he had seen the terrible 
battles of the western allied armies, followed by the siege of Sevastopol, 
followed by the loss of the free navigation of the Black Sea. If he could 
have seen the grandeur of Germany, (Prussia), Austria, Denmark, Sweden, 
Norway, France and England of to-day, his visions of European conquests 
would have faded away as the idle dreams of the night. The philosophy 
of the Western or German failures will appear, if we reflect, that the Rus- 
sian imperial brain is as old as those by Germany, France and England, 
they being cousins, of one generic family. 

Peter's will contains two parts: (1) His '' prescience ; " (2) and his 
instructions for the guidance of his successors. The emperor's " prescience " 
is faulty in another particular : He says, " We found Russia a rivulet, and 
leave it converted into a river ;" so far we find no fault. He continues, 
" My successors will find it a sea, destined to fertilize impoverished Europe." 
This prediction has never yet been accomplished ; nor can we discern any 
move in that direction. What fertilizing elements has Russia wafted to 
European countries that has any analogy to the great river of Egypt? 



244 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Russia has been Egypt to the other nations of Europe ; not the Nile. All 
those attributes of Russian greatness, of which that empire is proud, came 
from those European nations which she calls impoverished. The great 
Russian river flows east and north ; not to the west. With these strictures 
we pass to the second part of his will, viz., his instructions to his succes- 
sors. These are deceitful and overflowing with national selfishness. The 
second division of the will sets forth M^hat is properly termed Russia's na- 
tional policy, since it has been followed wherever the condition of the 
European nations would in any manner allow such a course of action. 
The instructions of Peter the Great have been put forth by the late em- 
perors as their settled policy. Alexander II. at his coronation said : "May 
Providence so aid us that we may be able to strengthen Russia in the higher 
degree of power and glory ; that by us may be accomplished the views and 
designs of our illustrious predecessors, Peter, Catharine, Alexander, and our 
august father, (Nicholas — W.), of imperishable memory." Let us examine 
some of these items of Peter's instructions : (1) " To have the Russian na- 
tion constantly at war." This item has been carried out very faithfully 
during these 160 years. At times, however, the results have been so disas- 
trous as to threaten her national existence. Her efforts westward, except in 
Poland, have been exceedingly unproductive. A voice seems to say, " Thus 
far, only." " Move thy armies eastward." The time has been when, it was 
supposed, Russia had her eye on America ; a more extended experience to- 
wards the setting sun, burst that bubble, and she disposed of her ice house 
to the great American Republic. (2) His second bill of particulars has 
also been carried out. Men of science have found a home in Russia. So 
have celebrated military officers. The vast influx of raw material -from her 
Asiatic provinces has supplied students for the constant occupation of these 
German, French, and English professors. The Russian drill has thus ad- 
vanced to a very high degree of perfection. (3) Her meddling with other 
nations' affairs has not been very productive of good. Russia has never 
gained any special advantages over Germany, though Peter's will instructs 
his successors, on all occasions, to take part in German disputes. The Ger- 
mans have exercised greater power over contiguous Russian territory than 
the Russians have over theirs. The reason is obvious, the German is supe- 
rior to the Slavonian, which is a mixture of many inferior varieties. The 
German race occupies the front rank of European intelligence, and is the po- 
litical centre of the European nationalities. (4) His fourth list of in- 
struction is relative to Poland. These instructions have been carried out, 
and have been attended with success. The Poles were of the Slavonian 
race, inferior to the German race. God has a distinct work for these fami- 
lies, as has been shown in the Anglo-Saxon family. (5) Her efforts against 
Sweden and Denmark may be set down as failures, since they remain in- 
dependent of Russian domination. (6) His sixth item of Russian policy 
is remarkable. The Russian princes were to marry German princesses, that, 
by these family alliances, the interests of the two countries might be closer. 
Yet this policy tended rather to Germanize Russia. Its effects were the re- 
verse of what Peter intended, the German having greater vitality than 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 245 

the Scandinavian mixture. God made use of this Russian policy to keep 
up the vitality and power of the Romanoff family so that Russia might be 
under the control of a first class brain. Thus does Jehovah turn man's 
policy to subserve His own purposes. (7) The seventh item of instruction 
relates to England. They were to form alliances with England, for com- 
mercial purposes, and to share the benefits of her gold. No direct attempt 
at British conquest is named. While mistress of the sea, any such at- 
tempt would have been disastrous to Russia. England was to instruct 
Russian sailors, and thus give skill to her naval officers and mariners. (8) 
The eighth specialty of Russian policy refers to extending her possessions 
north along the Baltic Sea, and south along the Black Sea. These seas are 
necessary to Russia's naval operations. In this policy, it being legitimate, 
she has succeeded. She has long had those seas, partly in her grasp after 
power, the Black Sea being taken from her only for a few years. (9, 10, 11, 
12, 13) The remaining five items of Russian policy refer to her conquests 
of the South, East, West, and finally of the whole world ; the establish- 
ment of a fifth universal empire. The last object she can never obtain, 
since it belongs to the God of heaven. It is the stone that, as a mountain, 
fills the earth. Peter's instructions were (a) to take Constantinople ; the 
Turkish empire; Persia, and the Indies. The East being subjugated ; Rus- 
sia is to turn her armies westward for the conquest of Austria, Prussia, 
France, and England. 160 years have passed since Peter the Great defined 
the future of Russian policy and domination. God had defined them twen- 
ty-three centuries previous to Peter's will. The will of Jehovah is supreme, 
and shall be ultimately accomplished. What Russia has accomplished to- 
wards universal conquest will be examined in future divisions of our sub- 
ject. It is sufficient here to remark that, to this time, every effort of Rus- 
sia to get possession of any nationality in the imperial zone has utterly 
failed. Her empire belongs to the great shepherd, or nomadic zone ; and 
God will hold Russia to that field till His purposes in the imperial zone are 
more fully matured. This will be discussed fully under the Ottoman and 
Hebrew Phases. Turkey, Persia, the Indies, Austria, Prussia, France, Den- 
mark, Sweden and the British empire will furnish some little work yet for 
the armies of the Northern Autocrat. 

In connexion with Peter's will, prescience, and the Russian empire in 
the future, one other (monumental) prediction is worthy of notice : — 
Peter's Equestrian Statue, the idea of Falconet, the French architect. He 
that wrote the destiny of Gentile domination on the mind of Nebuchadnez- 
zar and restamped it upon the mind of Daniel, in the form of a great metallic 
image ; and also exhibited the history of the same dynasties by the symbols 
of four beasts, could so operate upon the mind of the French artist as to 
construct a statue which should be a prophetic symbol of the Russian em- 
pire, since Peter's acts and policy were a model for the acts and policy of 
the Russian empire. With this pattern thought before us let us examine 
the statue in its intent and symbolic import. A mounted horseman, who 
stood for the emperor, in his career of conquest, is an appropriate symbol of 
an empire in its rapid career of victory. An equestrian statue is the proper 



246 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

symbol of a nation of cavalry. " Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say 
unto Gog. Thus saith the Lord God : In that day when my people of 
Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know (it) ? And thou shalt come 
from thy place out of the north parts, thou and many people with thee, all 
of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army." Eze. 
xxxviii. 13, 14. The great conquests of that empire, till it is faced by 
Jehovah upon the mountains of Israel, is fitly symbolized by this imperial 
rider (handling the empire) teaching his fiery steed to rush up a steep and 
precipitous rock, to the very brink of a precipice, over which the animal 
and the imperial rider pause without fear, and in an attitude of triumph. 
The horse rears with his fore feet in the air, and seems impatient of re- 
straint, while the sovereign, turned toward the island, surveys with calm 
and serene countenance his capital rising out of the waters, over which he 
extends the hand of protection. 

But we are in advance of our period of Russian history. Let us return 
to the point where we dropped the thread of our narrative of Russian his- 
tory (A. D. 1725). The seventy-five years of Russian history, from the 
death of Peter the Great to the coronation of Alexander I., Sept. 27, 1801, 
can scarcely find a parallel in the world's history. That period had the 
Romanoff sovereigns : Catharine I., Peter's second wife (1725-1727) ; Peter 
II., grandson of Peter the Great. Deposed, 1730; Anne, Duchess of Cour- 
land, daughter of the Czar Ivan (1730-1740) ; Ivan V., an infant, grand- 
nephew to Peter the Great; immured in a dungeon, 18 years; murdered in 
1762. (1741) Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, reigned during Ivan's 
captivity till A. D. 1762; Peter III., son of Anne and Charles Frederick, 
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp ; deposed and died soon after, supposed to have 
been murdered. Catharine II. (1762-1796), wife of Peter III„ 

Elizabeth reigned 21 years; Catharine II. reigned 34 years. 

Elizabeth, stung by a sarcasm on her good looks from Frederick the 
Great, allied with Maria Theresa (of Aiistria), and retorted with a heavy 
army, and thus Russia began her direct participation in the politics of 
Europe. It was much increased by the unscrupulous aggressions that 
marked the rule of Catharine II. 

The reign of Catharine II. was long, energetic, and corrupt. Her first 
war was against Poland. She offended the Poles, on the death of their king, 
Augustus III., by raising to their throne Stanislaus Poniatowski, her 
former paramour. She insisted on claiming the most of the Polish ter- 
ritory. 

The Poles having induced the Ottoman Porte to aid them in their de- 
fense, hostilities commenced between Turkey and Russia. In 1770 a 
Russian fleet first appeared in the Mediterranean for the purpose of rend- 
ing Greece and the Archipelago from the Ottoman empire. At length Po- 
land was dismembered by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and Turkey was 
forced to a disadvantageous peace. Catharine seized the Crimea, and again 
excited the jealousy of the Turks, who declared war against Russia. 
Catharine desired to place her grandson, Constantine, upon the throne of an 
Eastern empire, raised upon the ruins of the Ottoman empire, with its 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 247 

capital at Constantinople. Joseph II., Emperor of Germany, sent the 
Russians an army of 80,000 Austrians. Everything seemed to indicate the 
fall of the Ottoman empire. Surrounding nations, however, beheld with 
jealousy the designs of the empress, who threatened to destroy the equili- 
brium of Europe. Notwithstanding her victories and her conquests she at 
length perceived that a cessation of hostilities was very, desirable. Ac- 
cordingly, A. D. 1792, the peace of Jassy was concluded between Russia 
and the Porte. 

The bloody and expensive war was terminated by the peace of Jassy. 
History says that Catharine died after a "long and prosperous reign, and at 
a time when she hoped to drive the Turks out of Europe, and to seize on 
the throne of Constantinople." 

The reign of Catharine II. affords a distinct view of Russian morals 
and Russian policy and power at the close of the 18th century. The morals 
of nations, partake somewhat of the morals of their supreme rulers. This 
is particularly true of nations under despotic rulers. They are the foun- 
tains of civil and religious power and their manners and practices are a 
pattern for the people. This is strictly true where the sovereign claims to 
be the visible head and ruler of the Church. It was so in Pagan and Papal 
Rome, and Russia, in no particular, formed an exception. 

What, then, were Russian morals as reflected in the character of Catha- 
rine II, the head of the Greek Church of Russia ? Of all the members of 
the Romanoff family, called to bear the Russian sceptre, she stood first in 
real depravity of heart. Her acts will fully justify the allegation. Let us 
simply outline her morals. We append a brief sketch of her life from a 
reliable history. Her husband, Peter the III, was the grand-son of Peter 
the Great and Catharine I. "He was steeped in habitual excesses. He for 
a long time slighted his consort, Catharine (II), and openly lived with the 
Countess of Worontzofif, niece of the chancellor of that name. Catharine 
indulged in the greatest licentiousness ; and, after the dismissal of Poniat- 
owski, the Polish ambassador, with whom she had been too intimate, she 
carried on a criminal intercourse with Gregory Orloff, who became an active 
and zealous member of a conspiracy against the Czar. To the conspiracy 
of Bestuchefif, supported by his nephew, the Prince of Wolskonsky, and by 
Count Panin, was added another, of which the Princess Dashkoflf, a girl 
only eighteen years of age, was the most active and spirited member. Of 
all the factions, which acted without the cognizance of each other, Catharine 
was the animating spirit. 

At length a report was propagated that the emperor entertained the 
design of declaring Prince Ivan his successor, of disowning the young grand- 
duke, Paul, his son, and of immuring Catharine for life in a prison, and 
substituting in her place his mistress, the Countess of Worontzofif. 

At seven in the morning of the 9th of July, 1762, Catharine entered 
the City of Petersburg in the absence of the Czar; and having induced the 
soldiers to believe that her death, together with that of her son, had been 
decreed by the emperor that night, the troups took the oath of allegiance, 
to her. She then repaired to the Church of Casan, where the Archbishop 



248 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of Novgorod placed on her head the imperial crown, and in a loud voice 
proclaimed her sovereign of all the Russias under the name of Catharine 
II. The revolution was bloodless. Her husband was solacing himself 
with his mistress at one of his country-houses of pleasure, when he was 
informed of the event which had taken place. Consternation immediately 
pervaded the whole company. The emperor, perplexed and confounded, 
ordered, countermanded, asked advice, adopted, and again rejected it, and 
at length set out with his mistress and aid-de-camp to meet Catharine, 
vainly hoping to move by submission the heart of a woman who was 
utterly devoid of pity or compassion. After being induced to write and 
sign a renunciation of the throne of Russia, he was cast into prison, where 
seven days after, a minion of the empress gave him poison, and made the 
dose sure by strangling him, after a struggle in which the poor wretch 
fought with desperation and agony of despair. 

The woman thus made mistress of Russia, was born in Stettin in 
Prussia, of the house of Anhalt Zerbst, May 2d, 1729. Her name was 
originally Sophia, but upon her marriage, she obeyed the law and custom 
of Russia by leaving the Lutheran faith, and was baptized into the Greek 
church by the name of Catharine Alexiena. 

History calls her Catharine the Great, an epithet that seems to belong 
to all robbers, murderers, and villains that have the opportunity of mould- 
ing their crimes in colossal dimensions. With all that accuses Napoleon, 
it is much to his credit that the word does not cling to his name, and it 
is surely out of place, in its historic acceptation, upon that wise Alfred of 
England. Catharine was a woman of unbounded ambition. In her reign 
of a third of a century, it was aided by such ministers as Panin and 
Potemkin, and to wage her wars she had warriors like Romantzoff and the 
merciless and indomitable Suwarrow. Many magnificent schemes for the 
advancement of Russia were promulgated in her ukases, sounding her 
glory far and wide : a few of these were put into operation, but most of 
them, like many a fine metropolis in our West, existed only on paper. 
Indeed, she published a list of two hundred and forty-five cities which she 
had founded; we may look in vain for most of them. Once Joseph II. of 
Austria accompanied her to lay the foundation of a new city on the 
Dnieper, to be called after her name, Ekaterinoslaf. In her imagination 
it already rivaled St. Petersburg. With imposing ceremony the empress 
laid the first stone, and her imperial companion another. On his return 
Joseph dryly remarked: The empress and I have this day achieved a 
great work, she has laid the first stone of a great city, and I have laid the 
last. Such was the fate of many of the towns she laid : they were never 
hatched. She made vast beginnings and mean endings. Her plans were 
sure to be perverted before they reached the extremities of her dominions. 
Diderot compared her empire to a fruit rotten before it was ripe. Joseph 
of Austria called it a 'colossus of brass on a pedestal of clay.' One great 
feature of her fame is as a law-giver. To her credit be it said, that she first 
lessened and finally abolished the practice of torture. But her famous 
code of laws, which has been so much praised, never went beyond the set 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 249 

of instructions for its formation which she drew up, and all that was good 
in those she stole from Montesquieu and other sources. 

The luxury and waste of her life and the consequent profusion of 
expense, sustained by doubling and trebling the taxes, have few parallels. 
The nation's resources increased under her administration, but it mattered 
not how much, she was equal to their exhaustion. Upon her favorites she 
lavished diamonds by handfuls, and coin like pebbles, a harvest of wealth 
that sprung from starvation and beggary of thousands. Plague and famine 
raged in the provinces; rife rebellions were quelled only at terrible cost of 
life; and in one case an entire Tartar nation took flight from the cruelty 
and rapacity of her myrmidons, through an awful path of desert and 
wilderness, to the distant asylum of China. Such a ruler was naturally 
an accomplice in that stupendous crime, the partition of Poland ; she had 
smoothed the way by forcing upon the Poles as a king, one of her cast-off 
paramours, Stanislaus Poniatowski. We must not forget that she did 
much to encourage Russian literature, and that her decree allowing any 
one to set up a printing-office without a license from government, had an 
important effect in advancing the civilization of the empire. 

Her private character befitted a daughter rather than merely the wife 
of a Romanoff. Her profligacy was open, defiant, and it increased with 
her years. We cannot sully our pages with even a hint of its details, the 
record is already black enough. Yet this woman, whose political crimes 
were so colossal, and whose private vices so detestable, in her personal de- 
portment and in the circle of her court, was kind, easy, and good-humored. 
Her serenity of temper and composure of manner were remarkable. She 
was a liberal mistress to her friends, and in the midst of her despotism she 
sometimes displayed almost unaccountable indulgence and magnanimity. 
She never hesitated at any atrocity, cruelty, or injustice which could pro- 
mote her designs or secure her power; yet she could forgive a personal 
affront, and seldom punished, even when most provoked. While she was 
meditating the destruction of Sweden, and preparing all the resources of 
her realm for one more stupendous war, appoplexy smote her from life, 
Nov. 10th, 1796."— a a 

Such a. visible head had the Greek Russian Church for 34 years, and 
yet she is called "The greatest Sovereign of Russia after Peter I." It is 
said, "She made a great show of regard for the outward forms of the Greek 
Church, although her principles were, in reality, those of the infidelity, 
then prevalent among the French philosophers. She was a woman of 
great ability, but utterly devoid of principle. She shrunk from no crime, 
and sensuality and crime governed all her actions. She was shameless in 
vice, and always had a paramour who dwelt in her palace, and might be 
regarded as filling an acknowledged office of State, with large revenues and 
determinate privileges." 

Catharine was flattered by distinguished authors, and she invited some 
of the literati and philosophers of France to her court and became a dis- 
ciple of their infidel doctrines. During her reign Russian morals were 
severely neglected, and the whole nation drank in more or less of her loose 



250 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

practices. Under the reign of Catharine II. the boundaries of Russia were 
extended, and her material wealth increased. Still it is questioned, 
whether she advanced it in true greatness. If Righteousness exalteth a 
nation, and sin is its reproach (Prov. xiv. 34), the reign of Catharine was 
a period of Russian degradation. Her wars, except against Poland, were 
not followed with the results she anticipated. The philosophy of her 
failures is that with which we are more directly interested. Her want of 
success is ascribed to the workings of natural causes. Still nature, in all 
its laws and developments is under management of the Great Supreme. 
We hold this great principle as immutably true, that great national pur- 
poses, which, if carried out, would antagonize God's purposes, are uni- 
formly defeated, either in the act or in its results. Without such results 
God would not be the national ruler. He puts down one nation and 
builds up another, by what would appear to be human agency, working 
with entire freedom, still all must be under Supreme control. With these 
preliminary thoughts before us, let us ask why this great empress failed to 
conquer Turkey? Russia and the German empire were joined against the 
Ottoman empire. Why then was not the Turk driven out of Europe? It 
is answered, "The jealousy of other nations prevented it." The admission 
of the correctness of the answer does not change the fact of an overruling 
power. God turns the jealousies of the nations to aid in the accomplish- 
ment of His own purposes. Who prevented the success of the five previous 
efforts of Russia to take Constantinople ? This was the sixth attempt of 
Russia to capture the city of the "Golden Horn." It had been her dream 
for nearly a thousand years to fulfil that ancient prophecy. Yet the sixth 
attempt had failed under Catharine, when it seemed to be within her grasp. 
A voice seemed to say, Desist, spend no more treasures, shed no more blood 
in this vain attempt. She was about to begin a war on a large scale. She 
had commenced a war with Persia, was about to make war on Sweden, and 
cherished a scheme for the overthrow of the British power in India. In 
the midst of her debaucheries and her dreams of great national conquests, 
she is called away from her empire, neither is she succeeded by a son that 
is disposed to put her plans into execution. Her plans, contrary to God's 
purposes, as expressed by his prophets, totally fail. 

Paul, the son of Catharine II, succeeded his mother, A. D. 1790, at the 
age of forty-three years. The early part of his reign was prosperous and 
very popular. His father, Peter III, was put to death by his mother, while 
he was only a child. The neglect and want of confidence with which his 
mother treated him, exerted a very favorable influence over Paul's natural 
disposition, which led his subjects to fear that he would be stern and ca- 
pricious. As he was the father of Alexander I, and Nicholas and the grand- 
dukes Constantino and Michael, a further sketch of his life and character 
will be interesting. The jealous ambition of Paul's mother kept him 
secluded, and confined at one of her palaces at Catchina, 30 miles distant 
from St. Petersburg. During the earlier years with his second wife, Dorothea 
of Wuertemberg, the mother of Alexander I, Nicholas, and the grand-dukes, 
Constantine and Michael, he, with his wife, and children, was traveling in 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 251 

Germany, France, and Italy. In the midst of his foreign travels, he was 
recalled by his mother and assigned to the palace at Catchina. His chil- 
dren were taken under the immediate care of the empress, their grand- 
mother, to be educated at her court. On the death of his mother (1796), 
Paul was called to the throne of "All the Russias." Virtually banished 
during the long reign of his unnatural and ambitious mother, he was with- 
out any practical knowledge of the mechanism of Russian government, or 
of the people over whom he was called to reign. " A determination to 
change everything that had existed under the previous reign, and to wreak 
vengeance on the murderers of his father, were the predominating in- 
fluences that controlled his official acts. What else could have been ex- 
pected? His earliest measures, therefore, were to disgrace his father's 
assassins, and to pardon all Polish prisoners. These acts were popular and 
gave hopes of a prosperous reign ; but the capricious violence of character 
and incapacity for business, which he soon betrayed, removed all hopes 
previously created. 

The frivolous interference with every department of the State, and 
his exceedingly arbitrary enactments, his rigid ceremonials relative to state 
manners when in his presence, vexed the soldiery, the nobles, and all other 
classes. His foreign policy partook of the same cast. He joined England 
to establish again the balance of power in Europe and to oppose French 
conquests ; and because England opposed the surrender of Malta to his 
capricious ambition, he turned against her, joining a French scheme, of 
uniting all the smaller maritime powers into one vast confederation against 
England, because she claimed the right of searching neutral vessels. The 
battle of Copenhagen under Lord Nelson put an end to the confederation. 
Having adopted a system of neutrality in the war between France, under 
her revolutionary throws, in contending against the rest of Europe, he sent 
an army of 50,000 under Suwaroflf into Italy. The success of his general 
induced him to send another army of equal strength to co-operate with the 
Austrians ; but, being defeated (1799), Paul recalled Suwaroff with the 
Russian troops ; and retired from the allied coalition, without stating any 
reasons for such conduct. " Paul was preparing material aid for Sweden 
and Denmark (with whom he had concluded a convention against England) 
when a conspiracy was formed at St. Petersburg to put a stop to the ca- 
pricious despotism under which all classes in Russia were groaning. The 
conspirators, whose numbers included Count Pahlen, the most influential 
man at Court, Gen. Beningsen, Suwarow, and many other distinguished 
nobles and officers, appear originally to have intended only to force Paul 
to abdicate, but his obstinate disposition led to a scuffle, in which the 
emperor was strangled, March 24, 1801." 

With the death of Paul commences a new era of the Russian empire. 
Paul's sons were far his superiors in intellect and in Imperial drill, since they 
were educated at the court of Catharine II, their grandmother. On their 
mother's side they were German, she being a native of Wuertemberg, which 
kingdom is third in size and fourth in population of the royal states of the 
German empire. Climate, cool and heathy ; soil rich ; standing high in 



252 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the elements of education, there not being one person in Wuertemberg 
above ten years of age who cannot both read and write. It has produced 
great intellects such as, Schiller, Uhland, Kerner, Brentz, (Ecolampadius, 
Bengel, Schelling, Hegel, Baur, Strauss, Keppler, Stiefel; the botanists, 
Joseph and Karl Friedrich Gaertner; the chemist, Schoenbein; the painters 
Eberhard Waechter, Hetch, and the famed sculptor, Dannecker. 

The Kelts, of the first great emigration, were supposed to be its most 
ancient inhabitants; but when first known to the Romans it was occupied 
by the Suevi, a family of the second emigration, who were Goths, Scyths, 
or Germans. These were succeeded by the Alemanni (all men) and Franks 
(French) of the same Asiatic emigration ; of the same race, with Saxons, 
Normans, Danes, and Scandinavians, descendants of Odin, from whom were 
the Russian dynasties of Rurik and Romanoff. 

Whenever the blood of the Russian imperial houses, through marriages 
with inferior blood, became so much diluted as to weaken the brain vigor, 
they were restored to the pure German blood by marriage with a noble 
family of the German race. This idea is suggested in the instructions of 
the Will of Peter the Great ; in which he says, "select wives for the Russian 
princes among the princesses of Germany, for the multiplying of family 
alliances will conciliate interests, and by them unite Germany to our cause 
and increase our interest in that country." Such was the selfish view of 
Peter; but the great and holy Ruler of that empire had a higher purpose in 
permitting these national fusions — to keep the governing intellect of this 
vast nomadic empire in its highest state of activity and perfection — that it 
might be equal to the task He had assigned it in the last days. Let it be 
kept in mind, that this Russian empire, this shepherd empire of the no- 
madic zone has its active, capital location in northeastern Europe. (1) To 
keep up, by marriage, and by national intercourse, (a) the vigor, and (6) 
the drill of the German family, that family which occupies the front rank 
of the human race in intellect and vitality. It is the location of the Rus- 
sian Blast Furnace, in which the raw Asiatic ores are fused and moulded, 
preparatory to their use in the imperial structures, the seminary where 
semi-barbarians of Asia are manufactured into well-drilled Germanised Rus- 
sians; the kneading-tray, in which the materials gathered from one hundred 
Asiatic varieties, leavened with western European leaven, is kneaded and 
worked up into a homogeneous loaf; it is the vast Russian workshop — 
where Russia is educated and drilled for her future vast mission. She has 
her northern tenant-field to cultivate, that yields fruit in its season. Within 
this field of 8,000,000 square miles she is permitted freely to labor. When- 
ever she overleaps her God-set boundaries she is drawn back with a hook, 
handled by Jehovah. Let the reader keep these ideas in view as we advance 
in our outline of Russian history. As the surroundings of great cities, or 
great events, throw around them indications of proximity, so with the 
Russian empire, it will be more and more assimilated in its size, strength, 
and character to its coming contest. The character of her emperors will be 
suited to their battle mission. 

Alexander I, Paulowitsch, was emperor of "All the Russias" from A.D. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 253 

1801 to 1825. He was born December 23, 1777, and ascended the throne at 
the age of twenty-four. "His education, in which his father, Paul I, 
had no hand, was conducted by his grandmother, Catharine II, and 
Col. Laharpe and other tutors." He was much attached to his mother, 
Maria (Dorothea), daughter of Eugene, Duke of Wuertemberg. His dis- 
position was kind and humane. He was called " The northern Telemaque." 
Laharpe taught him the enlightened principles of the age ; the age of the 
early buddings of the French Revolution. Prof. Kraft was his teacher of 
experimental physics, and Pallas in Botany. He was married (A. D„ 1793) 
to Elizabeth, daughter of Karl Ludwig, Crown-Prince of Baden. He was 
supposed to have known the conspiracy to dethrone his father, but was not 
one of his murderers. He excited high expectations in the nation. He was 
the founder of the system of popular education in Russia; revised internal 
administration, and established freedom of industrial pursuits, increased 
Russias' commerce, and awakened among the people the spirit of unity and 
patriotism. He paid special attention to the language, literature, and 
general education of the Slavonic nations ; the language generally used by 
the Russians. He established or remodeled seven universities, at Charkow, 
Wilna, Dorpat, Moscow, Kasan,Warsaw, and St. Petersburg. Normal schools 
and gymnasiums, 204; and over 2000 district schools. The scientific in- 
stitutions of Moscow and St. Petersburg received new life. He was the 
most active sovereign of Europe in the Bible circulation. He was a patron 
of the Lutheran Church, and established a general consistory at St. Peters- 
burg for the whole empire. He devoted large sums to the publication of 
valuable works, such as Karamsin's History of Russia, Krusenstern's Travels, 
etc. He was a patron of the learned, at home and abroad. And in 1818 
he invited two orientalists, Demange and Charmoy. from Paris to St. Peters- 
burg, to promote the study of the Arabic, Armenian, Persian, and Turkish 
languages. He bore the expenses of young tourists. By the ukase of 1816 
he prepared the way for the abolition of slavery in the Baltic provinces ; 
he also declared that no more gifts of peasants would be made on the crown- 
lands. He also changed the barbarous acts of punishment, such as splitting 
the hands and branding, practiced with knouting. He much improved the 
code of civil law ; manufactures, trade and commerce of the empire ; con- 
structed roads and canals; made Odessa on the Black Sea a free port; and, 
in 1818, by a ukase, permitted all peasants in the empire to carry on manu- 
facture, which was before only permitted to nobles and to merchants of the 
first and second classes. 

He sent out, in the interest of Russian commerce, expeditions around 
the world; sent, in 1817, an embassy to Persia, in which was the Frenchman 
Gradanne, who was acquainted with all the plans of Napoleon respecting 
India and Persia; in the missions to Cochin, China and to Khiva; in the 
treaties with the United States, Brazil, and Spain ; in the naval and com- 
mercial treaties with the Porte; and in the settlement on the northwest 
coast of America. Alexander's foreign policy was that ef peace ; put an 
end to the hostilities against England, and made peace with France and 
Spain. He finally, in 1808, joined the coalition against France ; was present 



254 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

at the battle of Austerlitz, where the Austrians and the Russians were over- 
thrown. After the disastrous battles of Eylau and Friedland in 1817, he 
was forced to the peace of Tilsit. During this war with France, Alexander 
had also to carry on hostilities with Persia and with Turkey. Blinded by 
the genius and fortune of Napoleon, Alexander entirely changed the foreign 
policy of Russia, by joining, with his immense empire, the French con- 
tinental system. War was made against England and Sweden and at 
Lisbon the united fleets of France and Russia fell into the hands of Eng- 
land. In the autumn of 1808, the emperors of Russia and France, the 
Imperial representatives of the East and West, met in great splendor at 
Erfurt ; attended, however, with no good results. In 1809 he renewed the 
war against the Porte, which continued till the peace of Bucharest in 1812. 
The Alliance of Alexander with the French Emperor in his continental 
system, to exclude English vessels from all European ports, was so disas- 
trous to Russia, that Alexander awoke to his danger and joined England 
and Sweden against Napoleon, this change caused the invasion of Russia 
by the French. 

In these conflicts with France, and with the other western powers, the 
Russian empire with her armies was preparing to meet the terrible shock 
of the French invasion then impending. France had humbled Austria 
and Prussia and was about to measure arms with Eastern Europe — the 
great empire of the North. We have now traced the growth and develop- 
ment of the Russian empire under Alexander I., to the time that Napoleon 
entered his dominions. In that struggle Russian power was put to a severe 
test, since she was obliged to meet the well disciplined forces of the west, 
under the most able general of the age. She fought with the military skill 
of German blood aided by Slavonian obstinacy. Her policy proved the 
ruin of the French armies. She laid waste her own country as her armies 
retired before the mighty conqueror. Some terrible battles, however, 
marked his bloody path-way. Napoleon set free the Poles, and from them 
his army was recruited. In the mean time Russia found a remote ally in 
England, with whom, and with Sweden she formed treaties of friendship 
and reciprocal defense. 

The first noble stand was at the city of Smolensk, on the direct road to 
Moscow, and for the defense of which the Russians were posted. In the 
middle of night, after a severe contest, a dreadful conflagration was ob- 
served in the city, and the Russians abandoned Smolensk, and retreated 
over the Dnieper. Moscow was now the great object of strife between the 
opposing armies. The Russians took a strong position to cover it from the 
attack of Napoleon. A terrible battle followed, which was called by the 
Russians, Borodino; each claiming the victory. Seven days after this 
battle, the French entered Moscow. But, to deprive the French of their 
winter quarters, the governor had ordered it to be set on fire; and, no 
sooner had the French entered the Kremlin, than a sea of flames began to 
roll its fiery waves around it. The conflagration raged with fury for several 
days. The French commenced their retreat, closely pursued by the Rus- 
sians. A severe Russian winter set in early. The sufi'erings of the French 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 255 

were extreme, and their losses were extremely great. Horses died in such 
numbers, that the most of their artillery had to be abandoned, and the 
cavalry was nearly dismounted ; whole bodies of men, disabled by cold and 
hunger, surrendered without resistance to the pursuers; everything was 
disaster and dismay. Of the half million of men composing the French 
troops engaged in this frantic expedition, not fifty thousand men, including 
the Prussian and Austrian contingents, escaped out of Russia. 

The remnants of this grand army were followed by the Russians through 
Germany, and into France ; the Prussians and Austrians joining the Rus- 
sians. Sweden also joined the league against France. The battle of Leip- 
sic, which was gained by the allies over Napoleon, secured Germany, and 
shook to its foundation the mighty empire of Napoleon. The pursuit con- 
tinued till Alexander entered Paris in triumph. Alexander's magnanimity 
towards France after the fall of Paris won for him great personal regard, 
amounting to enthusiasm. He was received with the same feeling in Lon- 
don, which he visited after the treaty of Paris in June, 1814. On his 
return to St. Petersburg, Alexander's first care was to provide for the 
wounded, and for the families of the soldiers that had fallen. The senate 
wished to give him the title of "blessed," which, from Christian humility, 
he declined. After a short time spent in his Capital, he attended the Con- 
gress at Vienna. He, in that Congress, laid claim to Poland as essential to 
the interests of Russia, but promised to confer on it a constitution, and, on 
the whole, appeared to act for the good of humanity and the freedom of 
nations. Alexander's appearance in Paris after the battle of Waterloo, 
raised less enthusiasm than previously, yet on this occasion too, France 
owed much to his generosity. About this time Alexander was drawn 
towards pietism by Madame Kriidener, who exercised a strong influence 
over the emperor's political views. Under this influence he founded the 
holy alliance, the ostensible object of which was to make the principles of 
Christianity recognized in the political arrangements of the world, but 
which became, in fact, a mere handle for political reaction. '' The Holy 
Alliance, was a league entered into, after the fall of Napoleon, by the 
Sovereigns of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, nominally to regulate the rela- 
tions of the states of Christendom, by the principles of Christian charity, 
but really to preserve the power and influence of existing dynasties. Most 
of the other European rulers acceded to it. It was made public, Feb. 
2, 1816. In virtue of this league Austria, in 1821, crushed the revolu- 
tions in Naples and Piedmont, and France in 1823, restored absolutism in 
Spain. Subsequently, both England and France seceded, after which it 
became a mere shadow. A special article of the treaty excluded forever 
the members of the Bonaparte family from any European throne." L. U. K. 

Under Alexander I., her weight in European politics became powerful, 
her boundaries had been extended, and its industrial pursuits much in- 
creased. The army was remodeled after the fashion of western Europe, 
He corrected abuses in his own government, and alleviated the condition 
of the peasantry. In 1820 the Jesuits were sent out of the empire. Alex- 
ander's policy found much opposition among his own subjects, since he had 



256 THE j;astern question, 

changed £he policy of the empire. The dread of an other European revolu- 
tion haunted him. The contact of Russian soldiers, nobles and others, 
during the war, with western civilization, made them dissatisfied with 
things in their own country. The Old-Russian party was opposed to the 
enlightened measures of the emperor. Fearing another revolution, the 
army was kept on a war-footing, numbering (in 1821) 830,000 regular 
troops. To maintain such an army, oppressive taxation was required. 
Discontent arose in all parts of the empire. 

To exercise the spirit of political discontent, and the phantom of a 
Russian revolution, the emperor adopted the same measures usually 
applied over the rest of Europe. The liberty of the press was attacked, a 
rigid guard was placed over the importation of books. Restrictions were 
placed on science, literature and education. All democratic movements 
were examined, mason-lodges and missionary societies suppressed, and 
gradually all plans for reform and progress given up. Over all the pro- 
vinces of the empire, a net of police, open and secret, was spread, which 
interfered with the ordinary intercourse of society. This course of policy 
was exceedingly unpopular. It set Alexander against his former self. 
The experience that, in spite of this system of oppression, public opinion 
could not be stifled, and that parties and individuals only express them- 
selves more bitterly; the difiiculties of governing the huge empire, which 
were now becoming more manifest and startling. All this tormented and 
embittered his morbid mind, and led him to complain of ingratitude and 
of a want of recognition of his good intentions. Sometimes he sought to 
forget his position in the dissipations of a splendid court in which luxury 
and piety were strangely blended; at other times, he plunged into the 
darkness of religious mysticism. The progress of revolt in Greece brought 
the policy of the emperor into complete opposition to public opinion and 
the most sacred sympathies of the nation. The Russian people, restrained 
from all participation in political movements, were profoundly affected by 
the religious element of the Greek struggle; but the emperor condemned 
the rising as an insurrection, disclaimed the favor he had previously shown 
to the Greek cause, and confined himself to exhortations of the Porte to act 
with humanity. The death of his only and much-loved natural daughter, 
the terrible inundation suffered by St. Petersburg in 1824, in which he ex- 
posed himself to personal danger and the alarm caused by a Russo-Polish 
conspiracy against all the members of the house of Romanoff, contributed 
not a little to break the heart of the emperor, and completely to destroy 
the composure of his mind. Sick in body, weary of life, and possessed by 
thoughts of death, he commenced in September, 1825, a journey to the 
Crimea, with a view to benefit the health of the empress who was ailing, 
and that he himself might enjoy retirement. Leaving the empress at 
laganrog, he continued his journey, but was suddenly seized by a fever 
peculiar to the country, and obliged to return to Taganrock. 

Here, in spite of all care, he became worse, and died Dec. 1, 1825. The 
rumor that he had been poisoned was altogether groundless. He is said to 
have learned, shortly before his death, the details of the conspiracy which 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 257 

his brother and successor, Nicholas I, had to begin his reign by putting 
down." L. U. K. Thus terminated the life of Alexander I, emperor of 
Russia. A few thoughts relative to this period in the great Northern em- 
pire, seem to be demanded. Its close brings us to a point within 59 years 
of the close of profane history. The acts of those twenty-four years, cov- 
ered by the reign of Alexander I, we have very briefly stated. Its bearings 
on Russia's past and future are what especially interest us — the philosophy 
of her progressive developments. What purposes of Jehovah toward that 
empire, have been further shown, and illustrated? These twenty-four 
years constitute the introductory period between Russia and the western 
powers of Europe. A stormy introduction it is true, yet, to Russia a very 
important military school : one in which she battled with and against 
the best disciplined soldiers of the age, and with and against the greatest 
captain the world ever produced : Napoleon, the " man of destiny." No 
period, however long, had given Russia half the drill. It is not too much 
to say that it was a period in which Russia was Germanized. We use that 
term in its generic sense. It so far changed the character of Russia, as, in 
spirit and intelligence, to divide the nation. Henceforth there was a 
western or progressive party, that wanted Russia reconstructed after 
western model civilization ; and the old Russian party composed of fossils 
out of Asiatic mines, and from northeastern Europe. They formed the 
anti-progressive party. These formed the body of the nation, and con- 
trolled the nation's wealth. 

To accomplish the work assigned to Russia by the Governor of nations, 
high intellectual development, and a first class military education are 
necessary. To accomplish this God allowed the tribal nations of northern 
Asia to emigraiio to Europe, to reside within reach of the Gothic or German 
family by which they were to be educated and disciplined, and from which 
they were to be supplied with imperial rulers. Hence the German or 
Scandinavian family, a branch has given Russia two dynasties, (1) that of 
Rurik, from the origin of Russia to A. D. 1598 — 736 years; and (2) the 
Romanoff family that has continued to the present time; in all 1022 years. 

Another feature of these twenty-four j^ears has had a very lucid illus- 
tration. According to inspiration (Deut. xxxii. 8, and Acts xvii. 26) God 
throws around each nation its boundary. Among the nations the whole 
earth is divided. They are not allowed to hold for any length of time, un- 
less it is permitted by Jehovah as a punishment. The invasion of Russia 
by the French, and the repeated attempts of Russia to drive the Turks out 
of Europe by occupying Constantinople, are violations of God's fixed na- 
tional boundaries, and have therefore, been signal failures. These points 
should be well considered. 

GROWTH OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE UNDER NICHOLAS I., OR NIKOLAI PAULO- 
VITCH, THIRD SON OF PAUL I., BORN AT ST. PETERSBURG, JULY 7, 1796. 

As Nicholas I. came to the throne of Russia when it was about to be 
convulsed by the upheaval shocks of a long-prepared military conspiracy : 
17 



25S THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

his character and acts will not be fully comprehended without a sketch of 
the secret elements that had worked up this conspiracy under the reign of 
his brother Alexander I. To do this we must trace the origin, progressive 
developments, and the true nature of Nihilism and Nihilists. 

Nihilism is the name of a "negative" semi-philosophical system. 
Nihilism or Nothingism, is the reduction to nothing, or the destruction of 
all human organizations, whether social, political, or religious. It is a 
system which aims at the extinction of God, Church, and State. " It is 
the hyper-revolutionary programme of a Russian organization in various 
ranks of society," such is its European definition. The young men of the 
universities, and "the fair girl graduates" of Russia, are zealous Nihilists. 
They have adopted some of the socialistic views of western Europe. It is 
a negative, tear-down, pull-to-pieces system. They hold that society must 
be reduced to chaos, to build is no part of their work. The nihilistic or- 
ganizations are as yet too secret to enable any accurate history to be writ- 
ten. We can describe only as far as certain societies have been unearthed. 
It is yet Russian in its origin and work. Its master spirit is Michael 
Bakunin (born A. D. 1814) and Tchernyschevski, the journalist. In 1869, 
during the students' demonstrations, revolutionary documents were cir- 
culated. Sunday-schools were used as a medium of spreading their senti- 
ments, till they were suppressed by the government. Young men of high 
birth, went in disguise among the lower classes to learn the character of 
their burdens and complaints, and to imbibe their peculiar feelings. The 
Nihilistic associations began to exhibit activity, and funds were collected 
to carry on their work. With these remarks, which are general and ex- 
planatory, let us examine the origin, progressive development, and true 
character of the Nihilists. What events of Russian history have originate 
Nihilism ? When and how did it arise ? What are its features ? What 
has it done? What does it propose to do? These are questions we propose 
to consider, tracing the element through the Tartar days of Russian his- 
tory, up to the present period. 

Extremes are consecutive. " Radicals " have their origin in their op- 
posites. The pendulum would never oscillate without the existence of 
what is called gravity. Its descent from the extreme right generates 
velocity sufficient to carry it to the extreme left. The masses are oscillat- 
ing between the extremes, " Hosanna," or " Crucify." " Radicals " have 
arisen in a similar way. The Russian " Radicals " thus express themselves, 
" Nothing, in the present state of social organization, can be worth much, 
for the simple reason that our ancestors instituted it. If we are still 
obliged to confess ourselves ignorant of the exact medium between good 
and evil, how could our ancestors, less enlightened than we, know it ? A 
German philosopher has said, 'Every law is of use. It rules the conduct 
of individuals who feel for one another and appreciate their respective 
wants. Every religion, on the other hand, is useless; for ruling as it does, 
our relations with an incommensurable and indefinite Being, it can be the 
results only of a great terror, or else of a fantastic imagination.' Now, we 
Nihilists say, no law, no religion — Nihil ! The very men who instituted 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 259 

these laws ruling their fellow creatures have lived and died in complete 
ignorance of the value of their own acts, and without knowing in the least 
how they had accomplished the mission traced for them by destiny at the 
moment of their birth. Even taking it for granted that our ancestors were 
competent to order the acts of their fellow creatures, does it necessarily fol- 
low that the requirements of their times are similar to those of to-day? 
Evidently not. Let us then cast off this garment of law, for it has not 
been made according to our measure, and it impedes our free movements. 
Hither with the axe, and let us demolish everything. Those who come 
after us will know how to rebuild an edifice quite as solid as that which we 
now feel trembling over our heads." 

This is a fair enunciation of the theory of Nihilism: viz. that, since 
we outgrow our social, religious, and political systems, as youth outgrow 
their garments, these old systems should be annihilated that new systems 
suited to man's growth, should be instituted. This might seem to many 
quite reasonable and proper; still, if closely scrutinized, it will be seen, 
that, under this outer garment is a body of pernicious sophistry. (1) Man's 
progressive development is assumed : that, because he has had a later birth 
in the world's history he must be greater, more developed; (2) that old 
systems must be demolished before their substitutes are formed and ready ; 
(3) it is assumed that the present generation could devise more perfect 
systems; (4) it is assumed that man's moral nature is becoming more 
perfectly developed, and that he is, therefore, more competent to construct 
social, religious, and political systems; (5) it assumes, that man's morals 
and intellectual powers are in the inverse ratio of his physical attributes, 
that as his physical members decay and have less vitality, the moral and 
intellectual faculties increase ; as the brain -weakens the mind strengthens. 
This is contrary to reason and anthropology. The theory of human pro- 
gression, especially in morals, without the aid of any divine system of 
ethics, is not sustained by history. Man passes out of a savage state to a 
certain state of advancement ; then begins to deteriorate till in his morals 
he completes the circle. Such is human experience, without the aid of 
any divine system. All systems without God as their author are like 
temples erected on the sand. 

A knowledge of Russian history will discover to us the origin and 
growth of Russian Nihilism. As despotism has advanced so has Nihilism. 
It is the child of absolutism. Let us turn back and examine the growth 
of Russian despotism, and see if we cannot discover the origin of Nihilism. 

Some of its elements can be traced far back in Russian history. The 
conglomeration of shepherd, nomadic families from northern Asia, into 
the immense plains of northeastern Europe, carried with them the first 
seeds of Nihilism. These families brought with them the true patriarchal 
government of the early Asiatic shepherds, such as existed in southwestern 
Asia in the days of the old patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This 
was the first form of government in Russia. Such was the character of 
their nomadic freedom, that no other restraint would have been tolerated. 
As the families increased in variety and power, villages, towns and cities 



260 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

began to spring up. Such increase and compactness occasioned conten- 
tions among rival families for the mastery, each one striving for the most 
favorable locations. The weaker tribes, being conquered, were united to 
their conquerors which still made them stronger, but decreased their num- 
bers. The quarrels of these petty states caused an invitation to be sent 
over into Scandinavia for a ruler. The Scandinavian Rurik, with his two 
brothers, went into Russia and established what might be called the second 
grade of Russian government, a genuine oligarchy; the rule or government 
of the nobles and aristocrats. These nobles — the rulers — were generally 
Scandinavian ; the people were of the various Slavonian families and of 
very recent nomadic habits. The conversion of wandering or Scythian 
Shepherds into a fixed population, was the work of many centuries. Their 
fusion into one homogeneous mass was a task that required a brain of in- 
domitable will and unlimited executive ability. This herculean task was 
undertaken by the Scandinavian dynasty Rurik, and was faithfully con- 
tinued for 736 years. His efforts were set back 250 years by the Mogul 
Tartar (Tatar) conquest, during those years of Tartar supremacy, Russia 
was thrown back into a period of strife among petty princes. Under Ivan 
III, or John III, the Russians succeeded in throwing off the Tartar yoke. 
The Tartar element had, however, taken deep root in Russian soil. The 
people were thrown back into a free semi-nomadic state. The democratic 
element had, at first, been brought from Asia, was the governing element 
among the people, who were Scythian, Sarmatian, and Slavonian. This 
democratic principle, the Scandinavian rulers had never been able to 
eradicate. It was one of the fixtures of Russian soil. And when the serfs 
became one of the land-fixtures, like their dwellings, democracy took up its 
humble abode with them, and was the animating spirit of the Russian 
Commune. 

Ivan III was honored with the surname of Great ; and, having married 
Sophia, the niece of the last Greek emperor, he assumed the title of Czar, 
(emperor). Under him were united most of the minor Russian principali- 
ties. History says, " Though the character of Ivan is sullied by the cruel 
despotism of his internal administration, he is justly entitled to rank as 
the founder of the Russian empire." 

Ivan IV, the Terrible, who succeeded in 1533, was constantly at war 
with the Tartars, Poles, Swedes, the Danes and Turks, and with very general 
success. His energy and policy raised his empire to a high degree of pros- 
perity ; yet he was remorseless and sanguinary. Under Ivan III. the Russian 
oligarchy expired. The original democratic element of the Russian tribes 
yielded to the first step towards centralization of power, that of dukes or 
oligarchs; then to the centralizing power of the Czars; after that to the true 
imperial despotism, as exercised by Peter the Great, and Catharine II; and, 
finally, under Nicholas I, to the purest state of autocracy (sole mastery), 
where the monarch unites in himself the legislative and the executive 
powers of the State, and rules according to his own unrestricted will. 
Through these progressive steps of the centralization of the power, have 
the Russians been drawn during the thousand years of their existence. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 261 

Such an experience was well calculated to increase the elements of Nihilism. 
Indeed, such a centralization of power could do no otherwise than to array 
against it the spirit of resistance. There seems to be something within the 
human breast that utterly revolts at oppression : " Crush those that crush 
me," is an involuntary emotion. When four-fifths of the people were re- 
duced to a species of slavery so as to be attached to the soil that they culti- 
vated as tenants, they still had a species of democratic government. The 
lands rented, being practically in their possession, the serfs or rentors made 
of these rented estates one commune, governed by a chief oflEicer of their 
own election, and other officers necessary to transact the business of their 
rentals, and pay the rents due to the landlords, and make just divisions 
among their fellow-rentors. The principles of democracy were, therefore, 
kept alive among the masses. Still, in a national sense, they were not 
citizens; and, as intelligence increased, their servitude and their want of 
citizenship became more truly oppressive. The French revolution tended 
to fan these smoldering elements. They learned the condition of the masses 
in western Europe; the liberty they possessed under constitutional mo- 
narchies. They saw that the power was taken from the masses and given 
to one irresponsible head, the emperor. The liberty which their ancestors 
possessed, led them to investigate the causes of their serfdom. This investi- 
gation served only to increase their hostility to despotism. 

What advantage was it to the serfs that they owned the land they cul- 
tivated when the nobles owned them, and could command their services, 
like feudal lords, whenever they thought proper ? The reign of Alexander 
I. was very favorable to the growth of Nihilism. He put in motion, in his 
own kingdom, the whole machinery of western civilization ; and, after its 
workings, had formed two parties, progressionists and anti-progressionists, 
who were composed of* the old Russian fossils, he reversed the engine and 
ran his nation back into its old habits of thought. Such a course could 
not fail to offend those that were desirous of improvement. This change of 
policy waked up all the Nihilistic elements of his empire ; for, having seen 
the fruits of intelligent freedom, they were not willing again to dwell un- 
der the shades of despotism. It was natural, therefore, that they should 
combine to destroy those institutions, political, social, and religious, that 
tended to perpetuate their hated servitude, as the altar and the throne were 
a unit under one despot, they aimed at the destruction of both; and of the 
social system also that grew out of this wicked compact between church 
and state ; for apostolic Christianity, perhaps, never dwelt in Russia. The 
specimens of the Gospel, professedly from Jesus and His apostles, were not 
calculated to win the affections of Nihilists, or to give them a very favor- 
able idea of the god of such systems. Had true Christian principles spread 
over the world, and taken root among the nations, neither Nihilism nor 
Socialism would ever have had a being, since there would have been no 
elements for their production. 

The despotic monarchs, Ivan, the terrible, Peter the Great, Catharine 
II., and Nicholas, reduced the Russian people to two classes, the nobility 
and aristocracy, holding one extreme ; and the Serfs, occupying the other 



262 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

extreme ; no '' bourgeoisiee " or middle class, which, as a means, could bind 
together these extremes. The emperor held despotic sway over both classes, 
but could bind them together with no golden chain of sympathy and fra- 
ternal aflfection. 

The mir was another peculiarity in the Russian system. This is a " co- 
operative association of the local peasantry, under a head elected by them- 
selves, who exercise parental authority in conjunction with the village par- 
liament, which is convened in cases of emergency. This institution is 
primitive in its origin, which was Slavonic, is patriarchal in discipline, and 
preservative of the socialistic element in rural economy. Through its 
means exists the veritable commune in Russia ; since the arable land and 
pasturage belong not to individuals, but are the collective property of the 
commune, which enjoys unlimited authority in making allotments and in 
the redistribution of the soil. These village communes contains about five- 
sixths of the population, and are opposed to Caesarian despotism on the one 
hand, and centralized bureaucracy on the other." 

Another peculiarity, the tendency of Russian aristocracy towards an- 
archy. Russian history has clearly demonstrated this last feature. Taking 
no part in Russian politics, that belonging to the emperor and his nobles ; 
and have a body of slaves to manage, each one had a miniature kingdom 
to manage. There were no ties to bind them together. Russian society re- 
ceived another peculiar disturbing element under Russia's first great despot, 
Ivan the terrible. He selected a body of guards, taken some times from the 
vilest of the people, who swore implicit obedience to the Czar, and in turn 
were chartered libertines, robbers, and assassins. Each of them exercised a 
despotism as odious in its sphere as that of the Czar, and they became the 
nucleus of a new kind of nobility, the nobility of function and govern- 
ment employ, which, for all practical purposes, nearly superceded the 
hereditary nobility.- The atmosphere of secret societies, which prevaded 
all western and southern Europe, about the time of the French invasion 
began to be felt in Russia. Of Russian Society, about this time, one writer 
thus expresses himself, " We have the monarch who rules, the courtiers 
who assassinate, and the serfs who obey." Mr. Gladstone, (1880) wrote of 
what he called, * the oligarchic, diplomatic, and military class. This class, 
or rather this conglomerate of classes, ever watchful for its aims, ubiquitous 
yet organized, standing every where between the emperor and the people, 
and oftentimes too strong for both, is at work day and night, to impress its 
own character upon Russian policy." 

It is thought by some, that Russian character is pre-disposed, in its 
original elements, to Nihilism, Socialism, etc. They say that Russians, 
have the savageness of the Tartars : cruel, vindictive and stubborn, and a 
temperament stolid and lethargic; a combination of the merciless Asiatic, 
and the borrish and phlegmatic Hollander. The Russians are a conglomer- 
ation of one hundred Asiatic tribes, speaking some forty different dialects. 
To fuse such into one homogeneous mass has been the work of the past ten 
centuries. The Russian, is somewhat Asiatic, Scythian, Nomadic, Tartar, 
Mongolian, Slavonian and German ; a cross between Shemitie and Japhetic 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 263 

races, mixed with Hamitic blood. The Russian character, is thus described; 
''The race is probably similar to the Irish in some characteristics; and to 
the French in its mercurial nature; while in strange combination it resem- 
bles the German in its fondness for philosophical reasoning, and the Span- 
iard or Italian in its sensuousness and indolence. These latter characteris- 
tics give it an oriental stamp, as to the psychological tendencies of the 
slave mind. Moritz Kaufmann writes that it is 'singularly sensitive to the 
seductive influence of grand misty conceptions, while at the same time 
inclined to indolence and melancholy dejection' — again an oriental tinge." 
With such traits of character, and in a country, where for centuries there 
has been a struggle between the educated (aristocratic) class and the em- 
peror ; that of his officials, of all grades, has, confessedly, been infamous ; 
that reforms of immense magnitude were projected into the Russian 
system en masse, which elsewhere would have been the work of centuries ; 
that these reforms while they alienated from the emperor and autocracy the 
favor of the upper class, did not gain that of the lower; it may appear 
natural that Russia needed only to be infused with an element powerful 
enough to become distracted into any madness. 

The emancipation of the serfs (23,000,000,) and the land act are unpop- 
ular to both classes. It deprived the serf owners (110,000) of their serfs, and 
20 per cent, of their rentals. There is good reason for the displeasure of 
this class ; but, why should not the serfs be satisfied ? The change was too 
great, and too sudden. It is like the prisoner, long confined to his dungeon, 
pleads to return to it, so with the serfs; his new condition of freedom, 
combined with his land-proprietorship, prostrates him beneath an endow- 
ment which is a real burden. This peasant has simply changed owners — 
since as to his payments for land, (in 49 years), he is obliged to depend on 
some principal man in the village. And, meanwhile, the old commune 
principle is being slowly eaten away, and that of individualism instead of 
communism, with its necessary cares and responsibilities, — both utterly 
foreign to the experience and taste of the Russian peasant, takes its place. 
The freedom of 23,000,000 serfs cost Russia $500,000,000, paid to the land 
lords to settle the newly emancipated serfs upon their own holdings, com- 
prising farms extending over 300,000,000 acres. The agrarian and land law 
which followed the emancipation act, allowed the peasants of a commune 
to buy their holdings by a cash payment of about three years' rent, the 
State advancing four-fifths of the full payment, which was to be repaid, 
with 6 per cent, interest in 49 years. And as the peasants, from time to 
time, failed to meet their payments, the government advanced the amount. 
The serf, by paying four-fifths of his rent (the serf-holder losing one-fifth 
or 20 per cent.) for 49 years, becomes absolute owner of his lands. It may 
be doubted whether the serf is any better off under the present system than 
under the former village commune system. With the old system he was 
familiar and was secured in his rights. The system of emancipation was 
well intended by Alexander II, but its fruits so far are by no means satis- 
factory to either party. 

Having given an account of the origin of Nihilistic principles in Russia 



264 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and advanced certain reasons for their prevalence, we are prepared to 
examine the nature and objects of the organization. These we shall learn 
from their words and deeds. We allow every association to be the exponent 
of its own theory and practice. 

Michael Bakunin, the great apostle of Modern Nihilism, was born in 
1814, and died in 1876. His family was high in rank and in position, one 
near relative being aid-de-camp general to the late Czar, and another 
governor-general of eastern Siberia; he was educated in the school for 
cadets in St. Petersburg ; and, on graduating, was appointed an ensign in 
the artillery. In 1841, at Berlin, he studied Hegel. After that he went to 
Dresden, where he continued his studies with Arnold Ruge. Here he com- 
menced writing on philosophical subjects. In 1843 he was in Paris, at 
which time he became intimate with refugees from Poland. From Paris he 
went to Switzerland, where he was introduced to the societies of the Social- 
ists and Communists. 

In 1847, at Paris, Bakunin advocated the uprising of the Russians and 
Poles against the emperor. By the request of the Russian government, he 
was expelled from France. The Russian government offered a reward of 
10,000 rubles ($750). He fled to Brussels, but returned to Paris after the 
revolution in 1848. He was a member of the Slavic Congress at Prague, 
and took part in the revolutionary movement that followed; was one of 
the organizers and leaders of the riots in Dresden. After their suppression 
he fled, and was apprehended on the 10th of May, at Chemnitz. He was 
tried, condemned to death in three countries, Russia, Austria, and Prussia; 
his punishment, in each case, being commuted to that of life imprisonment. 
For several years he was confined in the fortress at St. Petersburg; after 
which he became an exile to East Siberia, where he. continued, several 
years longer, as penal colonist, when he was allowed to settle in the Russian 
territory of the Amoor. Thence, in an American vessel, he went by way 
of Japan and California to London. In London he labored to incite the 
Russians and Poles to revolution, in order to form a great Slavic federal 
republic. In 1863 he visited Stockholm to aid the expedition against the 
Russian Baltic provinces. On the failure of this enterprise, he again visited 
Switzerland, where he united with the internationals ; but his attempt to 
form a secret society within their own, for the purpose of bringing about a 
condition of general anarchy, brought him in conflict with their leaders ; 
and in 1872, he, with some of his friends, was expelled from the organi- 
zation, after which he retired from public action. 

Societies have been organized in Russia to promote the sentiments of 
Bakunin and Hertzen. "Young Russia," "Land and Freedom," etc., and 
newspaper organs, were established and circulated over the empire. What 
were the views of these Revolutionary apostles? Some of these may be 
gathered from a speech delivered by Michael Bakunin, at Geneva, in 1868, 
who is called, " The father of Nihilism, the arch-conspirator." 

" ' Brethren, I come to announce to you a new gospel which must 
penetrate unto the very ends of the world. This gospel admits of no half 
measures and hesitations. The old world must be destroyed and replaced 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 265 

by a new one. The lie must be stamped out and give way to truth. It is 
our mission to destroy the lie ; and to effect this we must begin at the very 
commencement. Now the Beginning of all those lies which have ground 
down this poor world in slavery is God. For many hundred years monarchs 
and priests have inoculated the hearts and minds of mankind with this 
notion of a God ruling over the world. They have also invented for the 
people the notion of another world, in which their God is to punish with 
eternal torture those who have refused to obey their degrading laws here 
on earth. This God is nothing but the personification of absolute tyranny, 
and has been invented with a view of either frightening or alluring nine- 
tenths of the human race into submission to the remaining tenth. If there 
were really a God, surely he would use that lightning which He holds in His 
hand to destroy those thrones to the steps of which mankind is chained. 
He would, assuredly, use it to overthrow those altars where the truth is 
hidden by clouds of lying incense. Tear out of your hearts the belief in 
the existence of God : for as long as an atom of that silly superstition 
remains in your minds, you will never know what freedom is. When you 
have got rid of the belief in this priest-begotten God, and when, moreover, 
you are convinced that your existence and that of the surrounding world 
are due to the conglomeration of atoms, in accordance with the laws of 
gravity and attraction, then, and then only you will have accomplished 
the first step toward liberty, and you will experience less difficulty in rid- 
ding your minds of that second lie which tyranny has invented. 

The first lie is God. The second lie is right. Might invented the fic- 
tion of right, in order to insure or strengthen her reign — that right which 
she herself does not heed, and which only serves as a barrier against any 
attacks which may be made by the trembling and stupid masses of mankind. 
Might, my friends, forms the sole groundwork of society. Might makes and 
unmakes laws, and that might should be in the hands of the majority. It 
should be in possession of those nine-tenths of the human race whose im- 
mense power has been rendered subservient to the remaining tenth by 
means of that lying fiction of right before which you are accustomed to 
bow your heads and to drop your arms. Once penetrated with a clear con- 
viction of your own might, you will be able to destroy this mere notion of 
right. And when you have freed your mind from the fear of a God, and 
from that childish respect for the fiction of right, then all the remaining 
chains which bind you, and which are called science, civilization, property, 
marriage, morality, and justice, will snap asunder like threads. Let your 
own happiness be your only law. But in order to get this law recognized, 
and to bring about the proper relations which should exist between the 
majority and minority of mankind, you must destroy everything which 
exists in the shape of state or social organization. 

So educate yourselves and your children that, when the great moment 
for constituting the new world arrives, your eyes may not be blinded by the 
falsehoods of the tyrants of, throne and altar. Our first work must be 
destruction and annihilation of everything as it now exists. You must 
accustom yourselves to destroy every thing, the good with the bad ; for if 



266 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

but an atom of this said world remains, the new will never be created. 
According to the priests' fables, in days of old a deluge destroyed all man- 
kind; but their God specially saved Noah, in order that the seeds of tyranny 
and falsehood might be perpetuated in the new world. When you once 
begin your work of destruction, and when the floods of enslaved masses of 
the people rise and engulf temples and palaces, then take heed that no ark 
be allowed to rescue any atom of the old world which we consecrate to 
destruction." 

In one Nihilistic speech tho following sentiment is found : Political 
assassins and incendiaries are not from hatred towards the persons and 
property involved, but from the necessity of rooting out from the minds of 
the people the habitual respect for the powers that be. The more the 
attacks on the Czar and his officials increased, the more would the people 
come to understand the absurdity of the veneration with which they have 
been regarded for centuries. In March, 1876, a number of Nihilistic pro- 
clamations, on their way to Russia, were seized by Prussian authorities. 
The following are extracts from these documents : " You should allow 
yourselves to be injfluenced (in the selection of your victims) only by the 
relative use which the revolution would derive from the death of any par- 
ticular person. In the foremost rank of such cases stand those people who 
are most dangerous and injurious to our organization, and whose sudden 
and violent death would have the effect of terrifying the government, and 
shaking its power by robbing it of energetic and intelligent servants." 
'" The only revolution which can remedy the ills of the people is that 
which will tear up every notion of government by its very roots, and 
which will upset all ranks of the Russian empire, with all their traditions. 
Having this object in view, the revolutionary committee does not propose 
to subject the people to any direct organization. The future order of 
things will doubtless originate with the people themselves ; but we must 
leave that to future generations. Our mission is only one of universal, 
relentless, and terror-striking destruction." "The object of our organiza- 
tion and of our conspiracy is to concentrate the forces of this world into an 
invisible and all-destroying power." Lieut. Dubrowin, hanged for com- 
plicity with the regicide Solowjew, says, "Our battalions are numerically 
so weak, and our enemies, on the other hand, are so mighty, that we are 
morally justified in making use of all attainable methods of proceeding 
which may enable us to carry on successfully active hostilities wheresoever 
it may become expedient." They act on the basis of the "right," whose 
existence they deny. 

What exists in the Russian government, and among its highest offi- 
cials which could reasonably give birth to such organization uttering such 
destructive sentiments? Russia has never allowed revolutionary expres- 
sions on her territory. She has always visited such with immediate and 
terrible punishment. The knout and perpetual banishment at hard labor 
have been the modes in which autocracy has visited its displeasure on any 
movement against itself. While the Czar of his own suggestion gave free- 
dom and actual possessions to 23,000,000 of his serfs, the poorest and most 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 267 

degraded of his subjects, he followed the traditions of the throne of Russia 
by sternly refusing to the higher class anything resembling a constitution, 
or a national legislature. 

All such attempts (and there have been many) resulted in banishment 
to Siberia, the same punishment as was meted out to the more savage and 
mutinous attempts of the lower order in a similar direction. The number 
of state criminals sent to Siberia, has been for many years about 9,000 
annually. These are principally for political offenses : many of them are 
educated, wealthy, and some of noble birth ; among them not a few re- 
fined, cultivated, and gentle ladies. This Siberian colony is Russia's 
Asiatic Factory, to which the raw materials are sent from Europe, to be 
manufactured into deadly, uncompromising, eternal enemies of Russian 
despotism. As enemies increase so must her despotic rule. Agtiinst Sibe- 
rian banishment the Russians have a most deadly antipathy : and millions 
say in their hearts, if not openly, Down with a power that has to resort to 
such measures in order to perpetuate its own existence. Another author 
remarks, " The light allusion which has been here made to the course pur- 
sued by government officials in Russia, has in no wise fully presented the 
enormities committed by these wretches in the 12,075, and by the authority 
of the emperor, who could not possibly control or even direct in such in- 
stances. The outrages and brutalities committed by agents of the govern- 
ment, in distant parts of the empire, were done in perfect security, and 
went unpunished. It was hardly to be wondered at that rude and illiter- 
ate Russian peasant, robbed of all that he held most dear, by the highest 
government official, in his neighborhood, should accept from the learned 
the proposition, that there was no God. Neither should it appear so aston- 
ishing that the educated and cultivated Russian, whose sister or sweetheart 
was subjected to the knout, for the expression of liberal opinions, or sent 
by imperial order into that Siberia of whose horrors he had heard, should 
view not unwillingly the possibility of a regeneration of society, which 
began with the assassination of emperors. In our brief sketch of Nihilism 
and Nihilists the novelist Tschernyschewsky is worthy of special notice. 
He edited a radical monthly, which was suppressed in 1862. He afterwards 
wrote a novel ("What is to be Done"). This was not allowed to be circu- 
lated in Russia, but it was printed in Berlin and Switzerland. Thus the 
Nihilistic views, disseminated, through broadsides, periodicals, newspapers, 
handbills, and even fiction, found many readers. 

Students of the universities drank greedily of the fountains of this 
new dispensation, on account of the evil administration of their various 
colleges, and because it offered them a new field for thought and specula- 
tion." An absurd rule, that a knowledge of Latin and Greek should be 
the test in university and civil-service examinations, drove many students 
from the universities and into Nihilism. In Russia the only field for the 
young man of education who is not noble, is the civil-service; commerce, 
the industries, and agriculture, offer them nothing; the priesthood is de- 
spised; there is little or no business for the lawyer, and the army positions 
are reserved to the nobility. Thus, to make a classical education a sine 



268 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

qua non for entrance to the university, was to set up an impenetrable bar- 
rier ; since the students, for the most part, are the sons of poor trades-peo- 
ple, priests, and small government officials, to whom Greek and Latin are 
impossible as preliminaries to a university education. Thrown out of their 
destined career, these young men had neither position, means of existence, 
nor prospects ; and in very desperation they grasped at the delusive subtle- 
ties of Nihilism." 

We have seen what the Nihilists propose to do, what they are striving 
to do: but, what have they really accomplished? This question we pro- 
pose to answer by giving a sketch of their public acts. Our purpose in so 
doing is to give the reader a photograph of the hostile elements that are at 
work in the Russian empire. He will learn this lesson, that no empire in 
the world requires an executive power equal to that of Russia, to hold in 
one body, possessing great vitality, as it must have, such a heterogeneous 
mass of repulsive elements. 

We have traced the Nihilists from their origin : have examined their 
declaration of principles, or platform as it would now be called : let us now 
briefly note how they have attempted to carry out their principles ; and, 
what they have accomplished. What they have attempted is now a matter 
of history : it is our province, therefore, to examine the record. (1) The 
first revolutionary attempt and political assassination was a student of the 
agricultural college ot Petrovski, near Moscow. The student Ivanoflf was 
killed by the notorious Netchaiefif, an emissary of Michael Bakunin. The 
assassination took place in 1873.- It caused very great excitement, since it 
was feared that this was simply the first act in a great political drama. In 
the midst of the wildest excitement the assassin fled to Switzerland. He 
was, however, surrendered to the Russian authorities; taken to Russia, tried 
in Moscow, and would have been executed, but that on account of the in- 
formation which he afforded, his sentence was commuted to transportation 
for life and penal servitude in the mines of Siberia. One hundred and 
eighty-three persons were implicated by his confessions. They were all 
apprehended on one day, May 20, 1875. Their trial lasted eighteen months. 
Ninety -nine persons were sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia ; thirty 
subjected to police supervision for a certain number of years, and the re- 
mainder acquitted; those accused were chiefly sons and daughters of priests, 
trades-people, Jews, and small officials, and were charged with seeking to 
propagate Nihilism among the lower class. Many of them were young girls. 
In 1878, the Nihilists attracted attention as a formidable association, about 
the time of the trial of Sassulitch, a young lady 28 years of age. She had 
been under the surveillance of the government, under suspicion that she 
was concerned with the Nihilists in the attempted assassination of General 
Trepoflf, one of the chief of secret police, in July, 1877. The officer in 
question had ordered a political prisoner to be flogged for some act of dis- 
respect to him personally, and Vera Sassulitch, as she averred, committed 
the act to force the government to take note of the fact. She was tried by 
a jury of educated men, eight of whom held government positions, and to 
the general astonishment, was acquitted, a result which the Russian press 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 269 

and public showed themselves in full agreement. General Trepofif was re- 
moved from his position, but was made general of cavalry. Vera Sassulitch 
left the country after the trial in 1878, but her case was brought before the 
supreme court of revision, and the acquittal cancelled on the ground of in- 
formality. In August, 1878, General Mezentofif, the successor of General 
Trepoff, was stabbed at St. Petersburg while walking, and died the same 
day. This and other similar attacks were ascribed to Nihilists, who were 
manifesting remarkable activity in all directions. A secret association, 
called the " National Government," issued a circular in April, 1878, con- 
taining a revolutionary programme, and calling upon the people to take up 
arms. Assemblages of the people in public places were now prohibited by 
ministerial order. In a letter from Odessa to a Vienna newspaper, it was stated 
that there were several thousand members of the Nihilist society in that 
city alone; that the organization had powerful supporters in the highest 
ranks of society ; and that a lady who was one of the Russian fashionable 
leaders, had been arrested for being in correspondence with the chief of the 
Nihilistic committee at St. Petersburg. In September, 1878, a pamphlet, 
entitled " Life for Life," which was considered a manifesto of the Nihilists, 
was published in St. Petersburg. Among other passages, it contained the 
following : " We are Socialists. Our purpose is the destruction of the 
present economical organization and inequality which constitute^ according 
to our convictions, the root of all the evils of mankind. The question of 

the political form is entirely indifferent to us." " Our daggers will 

never be sheathed until our oppressors, who strangle and gag us, are ex- 
pelled from the country ; and a terrible vengeance will be taken if the 
Russian nation do not put an end to this mediaeval barbarism." This 
declaration of Socialism as a theory of governmental order, thus opposing 
the fundamental principle of Nihilism, showed the heterogeneous elements 
and the blind fury of the whole movement. The assassination of General 
Mezentoff was in fact avowed by Nihilists in their journal " Land and 
Liberty," in which they alleged that he deserved death because he had 
trampled right under foot, and had tortured his prisoners; persecuted the 
the innocent ; and in his official capacity, had murdered by brutal ill-treat- 
ment, by hunger, thirst, and the rod, a number of persons whose names 
were given. On February 22, 1879, Prince Krapotchkin, governor of 
Kharhov, was assassinated by shooting ; according to a Nihilist circular, 
on account of certain inhuman acts against prisoners in his charge. Hey- 
king, commander of gendarmerie a Kiev (Kiew. q. v.), was also among the 
victims of the Nihilists, and on March 25, 1879, General Dreuteln, chief of 
the gendarmerie or third section, was shot at, and being missed, was warned 
that he could not long escape. The number and character of the persons 
assassinated or attacked by order of the committee of the Nihilists was so 
great in the several towns of the empire as to cause general alarm. The 
period of murders was followed by one of conflagration. In the month of 
June alone, in 1879, 3,500» fires broke out in St. Petersburg, Orenburg, 
Koslow, Irkulsk, and Uralsk, destroying property to the amount of 12,000,000 
rubles ($8,760,000. — W). Only 900 of these fires could be properly accounted 



270 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

for, and the remaining 2,600 were attributed to Nihilist incendiaries. On 
April 2, 1879, an attempt was made to assassinate the Emperor Alexander II., 
by Solovieflf, who fired four shots at him from a revolver, but missed his 
aim. Solovieff was taken and hanged. In November, 1879, an attempt 
was made to blow up the train by which the emperor was expected to arrive 
at Moscow ; this attempt, also failed from a change of programme by the 
emperor, who was not on the train that was actually blown up by a mine 
fired by one Hartman, who escaped. In 1867 an attempt had been made 
on the emperon's life while he was in Paris, riding in the Bois de Boulogne 
with the Emperor Napoleon III. The assassin fired at him, but missed 
him. The third effort was that of a man who entered the imperial depart- 
ment in disguise. The fourth, the terrible explosion at the Winter palace, 
which killed several persons. The fifth and last occurred on the afternoon 
of Sunday, March 13, 1881, and was a successful assassination. The em- 
peror was returning from a parade (no Sundays for monarchs. — W.) in the 
Michael manege, and when near the Winter palace, a bomb was thrown 
beneath the imperial carriage, and exploded, breaking through the back of 
the vehicle, but without injuring him (the Czar), who alighted to examine 
the extent of the damage. At that moment a second bomb was exploded 
close to his feet, shattering both his legs, and otherwise injuring him so 
that he died in less than two hours. The two assassins were immediately 
arrested, and within a few days others were apprehended for complicity in 
the affair. The funeral of Alexander II. took place on March 20, 1881. 
His son, the czarovitch, assumed the crown under the title of Alexander 
III. The assassination, which chilled the civilized world with horror, was 
openly rejoiced in at Socialist meetings in various countries. 

A proclamation of the executive committee of the Nihilists, drawn up 
shortly after the attack on the emperor by the assassin Solovieff, sums up 
the latest known published demands of Nihilism as follows : " A repre- 
sentative democratic form of government, permanent parliaments, with full 
powers to regulate all matters of state; extension of self-government in the 
provinces; complete autonomy of rural communes; the land to be put into 
the possession of the people ; means to be found for placing the factories in 
the hands of the artisan guilds; transformation of the army into a militia; 
liberty of the press and industrial combination." This is evidently a re- 
construction of Nihilism proper. What the future of Nihilism will be it is 
now impossible to forecast. It has made many attempts at the life of Alex- 
ander III., but, so far, it has failed. It is not reasonable to suppose that 
they will abandon their efforts while the cause of their existence remains ; 
and that can be removed only by the dissolution of the empire; which 
event is not to be accomplished in that way, nor by such an agency ; hence 
it must continue to be a disturbing element in the great northern empire. 
Its fruits must be opposite to those intended; for despotism attacked, but 
not overthrown, will protect itself by tightening the chains. We have 
given this lengthy sketch of Nihilism that the reader may fully understand 
the extent of the revolutionary elements that are working among the 
heterogeneous masses that are bound up in the iron fetters of Russian des- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 271 

potism. These elements should be well understood before we bid adieu to 
her profane, or fulfilled history, and follow her pathway into the great and 
undeveloped future. Nature is full of incompatibilities, so also are the 
moral, social, religious, and political worlds. These opposites cannot dwell 
together. Of these light and darkness will forcibly illustrate a future of 
the Russian empire. Alexander I. attempted to introduce into his despotic 
empire the enlightened civilization of western Europe. He put its whole 
educational machinery in motion, introducing schools, academies, colleges ; 
and founding seven great universities. Gave freedom to the press, and 
patronized the arts, sciences and men of letters. Alexander I. learned that 
a general diffusion of knowledge and despotism could not flourish in the 
same empire. Knowledge is power, the diffusion of knowledge is the diffu- 
sion of power. But despotism is centralization of power. How can power 
be diffused and centralized on the same territory and at the same time ? 
Russia must either circumscribe the knowledge of her subjects or the power 
of her despotism. The sun of Alexander I. reached a cloudless noon, but 
it went down in tempest and gloom. The throne, ascended by Nicholas I., 
was located upon a full-grown military revolution, ready to explode on the 
first pressure. Nicholas soon learned his danger and took immediate steps 
for his security. His death roll increased suddenly to a dangerous magni- 
tude. A long-prepared military conspiracy broke out immediately after his 
accession, which he suppressed with vigor and relentless cruelty. He 
revived capital punishment (abolished by the empress Elizabeth), for the 
purpose of inflicting it upon the conspirators. The rebels were hunted 
down with merciless energy, and in no case, even after the rebellion ceased 
to be in any manner dangerous, was their punishment commuted. The 
conspirators either mounted the scaffold or turned their dejected faces to- 
wards Siberia. Fifteen thousand perished in one day at St. Petersburg, 
their bodies being thrown into the Neva. His policy was the reverse of 
that with which Alexander I. commenced his reign, who cultivated the 
mind of the nation so as to base his government upon education and intel- 
ligence. Nicholas after a brief ebullition of reformatory zeal, reverted to 
the ancient policy of the czar, absolute despotism, supported by military 
power. Nicholas' policy separated Russia from the western nations, that 
his subjects might not imbibe a taste for these institutions. 

We consider the policy of Nicholas' reign as well calculated to shadow 
forth the true character of Russian despotism, and its true mission in the 
" Coming Age." Russia has had four monarchs, strictly eastern deposits : 
(1) Ivan, the terrible : (2) Peter the Great : (3) Katharine II. : (4) and 
Nicholas I. These aimed at the centralization of all power into one great 
autocratic head. All the centrifugal forces of the empire were either ban- 
ished to the Siberian wilds, or chained to their throne. These four 
monarchs made Russia what she is. Of the four, Nicholas occupies the 
front rank, in his despotic measures both foreign and domestic. He was, 
by nature, about the least gifted among the four ; yet a true Romanoff in 
character. 

History states, that Nicholas was very carefully instructed by his 



272 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

mother a princess of Wuertemberg. He also received a military education, 
was taught political economy, and some other branches, without however, 
giving evidence of any natural capacity for these subjects. He visited Eng- 
land and various parts of western Europe, in 1816, and, during that year, made 
the tour of his own country. On the 13th of July, 1817, he married Fred- 
erika, Louisa, Charlotte, Wilhelmina, eldest daughter of Frederic William 
in. of Prussia, and continued in private life till the death of Alexander I. 
(Dec. 1825), when, owing to the resignation of his elder brother Constantine, 
he succeeded to the imperial throne of " All the Russias." 

After putting down the conspiracy with relentless hate, he turned his 
attention to the general affairs of his own empire. He seemed at once to 
discern the causes of the late conspiracy, and set to work, immediately to 
put in motion his machinery of centralization of all power. Having severed 
fellowship with western Europe he proceeded to undo what Alexander I. 
had done in the fore part of his reign. He adopted the centralizing policy 
of Ivan the terrible, Peter the Great, and Katharine II. Intellectual activ- 
ity was, as far as practicable, restrained to things of every day use ; edu- 
cation was limited to necessary preparation for public service. The press 
was placed under the most severe censorship, and every effort made to bring 
the national mind under official control. He attempted to Russianize the 
whole empire by making it Slavonian. To understand the Panslavian 
movement, keep in mind, that the population of Europe is composed of 
three great Asiatic families, emigrating into Europe at three very distinct 
eras : — (1) The Keltic now occupying western Europe along the Atlantic 
coasts, Ireland and Wales: (2) the Gothic, Scythian, or German, who occu- 
py central and northwestern Europe and the principal British Islands ; (3) 
the Slavonian, or, as it is sometimes called, the Russian. Panslavism aims 
to Russianize all Europe and the eastern world : the amalgamation of all 
Slavonic races, into one body, having one language, one literature, and one 
social policy. The Slavonians of Austria have always taken occasion to 
show that they regarded themselves as standing apart froai German interests 
in times of public disturbance. Hence we do not .place the Germans in the 
Slavonian army under Gog. The two families are distinct and hostile, 
having no common interests. In 1848, the Slavonian population of Aus- 
trian empire, instead of taking part with their fellow citizens in the election 
of representatives to the German parliament at Frankfort, the leading pro- 
moters of Panslavism summoned a Slavonic congress at Prague, which was 
attended by Slavonians from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, and by 
Slavonic Poles, Croats, Servians, and Dalmatians, who appeared in their 
national costumes. That congress gave birth to a democratic rebellion, 
which was suppressed with much bloodshed. Since 1860 Panslavism has 
exercised an influence over Austrian affairs : both northern and southern 
slaves tending towards united action in opposition to the centralistic and 
dualistic aims of Germans and Magyars respectively. In 1867 a very nu- 
merous Slavonic congress was held at Moscow, but without any special 
results. The great change in the Balkan peninsula may be ascribed to Pan- 
slavism. 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 273' 

Having restored Russia to her ancient policy of imperial centraliza- 
tion, and put down opposing elements. Nicholas began to extend his 
dominions. A war with Persia was concluded (Feb. 28, 1828) by the peace 
of Turkmanshai, which gave considerable extent of territory to Russia. 
In the same year he began a war with Turkey. Victory, though at im- 
mense cost, followed his standard. The peace of Adrianople obtained for 
Russia another increase of territory, the free navigation of the Danube, 
with the right of free passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas. 
In 1830 the political movements in the west of Europe, caused a rising 
among the Poles, which was suppressed after a desolating contest of nine 
months, which called forth the entire military power of Russia. Nicholas 
punished the rebellion by converting Poland into a Russian province, and 
by extinguishing Polish nationality. In this act Nicholas lost the sym- 
pathies of western Europe, and of the civilized world. He interfered 
with religious toleration, seeking to convert Roman Catholics and Protest- 
ants to the Russian Greek Church, of which the Czar is the head. He 
next turned his face towards western Asia and Caucasus. Those moun- 
taineers were in the possession of too much liberty to suit this northern 
autocrat. He wished to conquer and hold the old Caucasian cradle, though 
formed of rugged mountains. It was the southern gate-way into Asia. 
This war was bloody and protracted, the Russian armies meeting with 
little success. Nicholas viewed the advance of British interests in Central 
Asia with alarm, and attempted to counteract it by various means. An 
expedition was sent for the conquest of Khiva in 1839, which utterly 
failed. Between 1844-46 he visited England, Austria and Italy. During 
the political revolution of 1848-49 he took the first opportunity to aid the 
Austrian empire to quell the Hungarian insurrection. This aid rendered 
Austria his firm ally. He drew closer the bonds of Russian and Prussian 
alliance, which was attended with great damage to Prussia. The re-estab- 
lishment of the French empire tended to confirm these alliances, and led 
Nicholas to believe that the moment had arrived for carrying into effect 
the hereditary Russian scheme for the absorption of Turkey. With the 
ancient prophecy in his mind and filled with the idea that Turkey would 
stand alone he began the conflict. July 2d, 1853, the soldiers of Nicholas 
crossed the Pruth. In the hostilities which followed, the Turks displayed 
a steady courage. The massacre of Sinope startled England and France 
and their fleets were sent to the Black Sea. The pretext of this war was 
somewhat of the nature of the Crusades. The possession of the holy 
places at Jerusalem had long been a bone of contention between the Greek 
and Latin monks. The dispute came up afresh, France deciding for the 
Latin and Russia for the Greek monks. In order to get possession of those 
places, Turkey, holding them, was first to be conquered; hence the war. It 
would have been better had the combined fleets entered those waters 
before, to save the unnamed heroes who perished at Sinope. (Nov. 30, 
1853, the Turkish squadron of 13 ships suddenly attacked and destroyed 
the Russian fleet.) 

The Russian fleet retreated to the haven of Sebastopol, never to come 
18 



274 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

forth. The war on the Danube was bravely maintained by the Turks. In 
the spring of 1854, France and England entered into a formal alliance with 
Turkey, and sent a large force to the seat of war. The allied army landed 
at Eupatoria, September 14th, On the 20th, the heights of Alma were 
taken. Conrobert succeeded the French marshal St. Arnaud, who had died. 
The deadly siege of Sebastopol commenced October 17th, 1854. While the 
combined armies beleaguered the south side of this rival of Gibraltar, pow- 
erful armies were sent into the Baltic. They gained only slight successes, 
the Russian army lying safe under shelter of the strong fortresses at Cron- 
stadt. The great battles of the Crimean war were Balaklava, Inkerman, 
and the Tchernaya, and the siege of Kars in Armenia. During this war 
Nicholas died (March 2, 1855) of atrophy of the lungs. His death was 
hastened by chagrin at the repeated defeats which his army sustained, and 
by the over-anxiety, and the excessive labor he underwent to repair his 
losses. He was remarkable for temperance, frugality, and patriotism, but 
equally so for vanity and ostentation. He was fanatically beloved by his 
Russian subjects, and was at the same time regarded by them with feelings 
of awe, a tribute to his lofty stature and imperial deportment, which gave 
him the most intense pleasure. This extreme vanity affected his mind and 
is said to have been the cause, in part, of his many political blunderings 
toward the close of his reign. Sebastopol was abandoned by the Russians 
on the night of September 8, 1855, after 48 hours of terrible conflict. Hos- 
tilities ceased February 29, 1856, and peace was proclaimed the following 
April. Nicholas was succeeded by his son, Alexander II. Before we enter 
upon the Russian history during his reign let us call attention to this 
another failure of Russian attacks on Turkey, and the causes of the failure. 
It is very evident that its success would have changed the political aspect 
of Europe, Asia, and of the world. The great empire of the north, forsaking 
its polar capital and the nomadic zone, would have made Constantinople 
its seat of Empire. From this stronghold in the imperial zone its conquests 
eastward would have been easy, certain, and without any national limit. 
The wall (Turkish empire) being broken down by the -Jewish enemy of old, 
the future Jewish nationality would have been a failure. There would 
have been no King of the South, nor no battle upon the mountains of Israel, 
and prophecy as to the future would have been a blank. Who can look upon 
Russias' many failures to take Constantinople and drive the Turk out of 
Europe, without seeing the hand extended to draw her back ? as if God was 
saying to Russia, in each attempt, Thus far only thy field and thy mission 
are in the north and east, confine thy work to thy legitimate zone till my 
people are returned and have their own nationality in their own God-given, 
God-appointed land. 

It may be said that these failures can be accounted for in a natural way. 
This we do not deny. But has not nature an all-powerful Ruler? God 
must control national action or His seers could not declare the future. 
Russia has a mission as distinct as that of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, 
or Rome. Who, then, can question the causes of these repeated failures? 

The Russian empire is northern in all its elements and resources and 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 275 

therefore, must not be allowed to pass permanently the bounds of her 
proper and her appointed habitation. 

Alexander II was born April 29, 1818. He was carefully instructed by 
his father, Nicholas, who was delighted to see in him the marks of a "true 
Russian spirit." At 16 he was declared of age, made commandant of the 
guard, helman of the Cossacks, first aide-de-camp of the emperor, and sub- 
jected daily to a life of manoeuvring, reviewing and military parade, which 
at last seriously injured his health. He then traveled through Germany 
to recruit his energies, and during his stay in that country, was married to 
princess Maria, daughter of the Grand Duke of Darmstadt, in 1841. He 
now vigorously applied himself to his duties as chancellor of the university 
of Finland. By his dexterous and subtle manners, he insinuated himself 
into the affections of the Finns, and weaponed their love of independence. 

He founded a chair of the Finnish language and literature, and de- 
frayed the expenses of remote explorations undertaken by their savants, 
such as Cygnoeus, Wallin and Castren. In 1850 he visited southern Rus- 
sia, Nicolaiefif, Sebastopol, Tiflis, Erivan, etc. It is said that he witnessed 
with regret the attitude of his father towards western 'Europe, and that he 
altogether disapproved of the Crimean war. On his accession to the throne, 
March 2, 1855, he found himself in a very critical position. He had two 
parties to conciliate at home — the old Muscovite party, blindly zealous for 
war, and the more peaceable and intelligent portion of the nation, who 
possessed his personal sympathies. He pursued a course calculated to 
encourage both; spoke of adhering to the policy of his "illustrious ances- 
tors," and at the same time concluded peace. He took active measures to 
purge the internal administration ; rebuked corrupt functionaries, and 
severely punished some as a warning to others. By a ukase, dated May 27, 
1856, he granted to all Polish exiles, who were willing to express repentance 
for the past, permission to return home; though he did not separate Poland 
from the " great Russian family." His emancipation of 23,000,000 serfs 
and the closing events of his life we have given under the head of Nihilism. 

The Polish insurrection in 1863-64 was suppressed with extreme 
severity ; and in 1868 the last relics of Polish independence disappeared in 
the thorough incorporation of the kingdom with the Russian empire. The 
subjugation of the Caucasus was completed in 1859. Successive expedi- 
tions,.the last of which were those against Khiva and Khokon, have resulted 
in the establishment of Russian supremacy over all the states of Turkestan. 
In 1876, on the death of the governor of the Baltic, their administration 
was merged into that of the central government. Russia in 1870 intimated 
that she no longer felt bound by certain conditions of the treaty of 1856, 
and in a conference at London, in 1871, her claims (relative to her free navi- 
gation of the Black Sea)-were admitted. The misgovernment of her (Rus- 
sias) Christian subjects by Turkey, and her cruel suppression of incipient 
rebellion in Bulgaria in 1876, led to a conference of the European powers at 
Constantinople. Turkey rejected the proposals made by the conference with 
a view to the better administration of the subject provinces ; and Russia, to 
enforce these concessions on Turkey, declared war in April, 1877. At first the 



276 THE EASTERN QUESTION, ' 

Russian progress was rapid ; but the energy displayed by the Turks during 
the summer compelled the invaders largely to augment their forces, both in 
Bulgaria and Armenia. The chief events of the war were the desperate but 
unsuccessful attempts to expel the Russians from the Shipka pass in the 
Balkans, the fall of Kars in November, the resolute defense of Plevna by 
Osman pasha from July till December, and the capture of the Turkish 
army of the Shipka in January. The armistice signed in January, 1878, 
was followed in March by the treaty of San Stefano ; between Russia and 
England a congress of the great powers met at Berlin in June, 1878, sanc- 
tioned the arrangement of the Ottoman empire explained under the future 
Turkish phase of the Eastern Question. A cession was made to Russia of 
the part of Bessarabia given to Moldavia in 1856, as also of the port of 
Batum, of Kars and of Ardahan. 

On the 13th of March, 1881, Alexander II. fell by the hands of Nihil- 
istic assassins. On the 20th his funeral ceremonies took place ; after which 
his son, as Alexander III., ascended the throne, who now reigns over " all 
the Russias." Since 1881 nothing has transpired in Russia worthy of any 
special note. Nihilism is still active and seeks every opportunity to scare 
and to kill. The present emperor sits insecure upon his throne, which he 
despotically occupies, not knowing what moment may unearth a power 
which shall terminate his somewhat useless existence. His coronation, 
deferred for many months through fear of the Nihilists, at last took place 
at the expense of $10,000,000 of wasted money — money earned by the 
oppressed. How long he will be permitted to hold imperial sway is known 
only to the Great Invisible. As soon as the time comes in the arrangement 
of the Divine purposes, when Russia will be required to make a forward 
movement, his throne will be occupied by some despot competent to carry 
out the appointed mission. 

In bidding adieu to Russia in the past Russian profane history, a brief 
statement of our plan and its intent will aid the reader the better to follow 
us while we pursue Russia through her prophetic history. 

Russia's past history was necessary, in order to enable us to discern 
accurately her present character. Her present character will necessarily 
aid us to forecast her future or prophetic history. We have studied her 
past history for the sake of understanding her future history. Russia has 
a future mission. That mission requires for its accomplishment certain 
characteristic features in its chief agent. Assuming the Russian empire to 
be that chief agent, we have examined that empire in its original family 
elements and in their combination into one great imperial whole. We 
have in our first efforts described tribal nations as they emigrated from 
southwestern, central, and northeastern Asia into northeastern Europe; 
traced them in their original features, followed these tribal nations through 
their long fusion process (extending in the Scythians over one thousand 
years) till out of this heterogeneous mixture of tribal nations a new man is 
formed — the Russian ; have followed that new people under two dynasties 
to the present, searching their acts to learn their specific character. 

We have traced this empire of the north : (1) in its embryotic state ; 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 277 

(2) in its infancy ; (3) through its childhood ; (4) through its youth ; (5) 
and into its manhood. During its centuries while it lay in embryo, it ex- 
isted in its primary elements, simply as families of different blood, Shem- 
itic, Japhetic, and Hamitic. These mingling, and thus giving rise to all 
shades of character, forming in northeastern Europe on its extended plains 
and uplands the great empire of the north. We have followed these fami- 
lies during the period of their fusion, seen them gradually mingling, and 
assuming the form of a nation, composed of one hundred tribal nations, 
speaking some forty different languages. After centuries of conflicts, com- 
ing under the control of dukes, grand-dukes of the Scandinavian family of 
Rurik — which continued 736 years, after which the house of Romanoff, of the 
Scandinavian and German race governed the empire as czars, emperors and 
autocrats, to the present time. Through all the various changes from em- 
bryo to manhood the Russian empire has exhibited a vigor that has pointed 
it out as the great educator of the north ; the northern university of Europe, 
where the northern races of Asia were to receive their European drill, the 
national blast furnace where the Asiatic ores were to be reduced, prepara- 
tory to being cast into moulds suited to the last days. 

We have noted her seven efforts to gain firm footing in the zone of 
empires, fixing her southern capital at Constantinople, but she has signally 
failed in each attempt. She has been pulled back by Jehovah's direct in- 
terference, as can be distinctly traced through the entire course of Russian 
history. Her field to cultivate is the north. She has been forced to locate 
her seat of empire in a high northern latitude (60°). And her seminaries 
of instruction for the shepherd zone are kept in that range of temperature, 
well suited to their original constitutions. God thus divides the earth into 
a central field, surrounding it with other fields ; then raises up tenants in 
every way suited to these fields. Such a fitness exists between the great 
field of the north and its Russian tenant. The Russian bear was made for 
the great bear field. In like manner God has in his education, and special 
drill, adapted the Russian to her field and her work. Whenever, therefore, 
Russia has attempted to fix her capital in a more enervating latitude, she 
has been drawn back, even to seven times. When she has attempted the 
West she has been defeated and obliged to retire. On the other hand, 
whenever the Gothic-Scythian of German nations has entered her legiti- 
mate field, she has been driven back. Not so with the eastern nations, 
such as the Tartars. They were to be fused with the Russians to maintain 
certain distinctive characteristics. That empire was to be ruled by German 
mind, but its body was to be Slavonian. Another Russian peculiarity has 
been noticed. The extremely despotic rulers have been the most popular 
and successful, such as Ivan the terrible, Peter the Great, Katharine II. 
and Nicholas. 

The reason is obvious, it requires extreme despotic power to hold to- 

» gether its heterogeneous elements, so as to centralize all power. Every 

emperpr that has aimed at the diffusion of general intelligence has been 

made quite unpopular, while the opposite policy led to popularity. These 

items are sufficient to point out and locate Russia's character and work. 



278 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

Her mission is in the north. There she will be confined till the final 
struggle. The philosophy of Russian history is exceedingly entertaining 
as well as instructive. The reader will do well to investigate the great 
causes which prompt to Russian action. Pharaoh Menephthes was raised 
up for a certain purpose. Cyrus was educated for a certain work. So were 
Alexander, Aleric, Attilar, Genseric, etc. Why, then, has not the Russian 
empire a similar origin ? If we are allowed to conjecture relative to Russia 
and the remainder of Europe, we shoiild say that their interests are quite 
dissimilar, and, therefore, their intercourse will not be cordial. Russia is 
aware that the nations of western Europe fully comprehend her aim 
towards Turkey, and she knows also that her occupancy of Constantinople 
would be damaging to the commercial interests of those great powers ) she 
is also aware that they are sufficiently powerful to prevent her conquest of 
Turkey; she finds it necessary, therefore, to move with great caution. Her 
last two wars with Turkey taught her that lesson quite perfectly. Before 
she can take possession of Constantinople, she must convince the European 
world that it by right belongs to her. This she cannot acconaplish. She 
must move towards the east, and bring the entire nomadic zone under her 
control. With these concluding remarks on Russian profane history, we 
shall follow her to the close of her prophetic history. This will be no or- 
dinary task. 

KUSSIAN EMPIRE FROM A. D. 1884 TO THE CLOSE OF THE MILLENNIAL AGE, 
OR THE AGE OF SUBJUGATION. 

This is Russia's first period of her prophetic history. We call it the 
Millennial age from its duration, one thousand years. We denominate it 
the age of subjugation, for the reason that the first of the age, at least, is 
occupied by Christ under His regal office in subjugating His enemies. Paul 
says of this period, " For He (Christ — W.) must reign, till He hath put all 
enemies under His feet." i Cor. xv. 25. During this period nations exist. 
The thought is clearly suggested by the metallic image and the stone. The 
metallic image is the symbol of Gentile rule on the earth. The stone, in- 
creased to a mountain, represents the earth under the reign of Christ or the 
kingdom of the God of heaven. The work of destroying the image be- 
longs to Christ in His regal ofl&ce, expressed by Paul as above. When 
Christ returns He subdues the nations. We call the age in which Christ is 
thus occupied the age of subjugation. No term can be more appropriate. 
Our purpose is now well defined to trace Russia through that period. And 
we have given her past history to aid us in giving this portion of her 
prophetic history. We may assume at least that Russia's past character 
will serve as a fair sample of her future. Her field of preparatory labor is 
fully defined — the field of the north ; — the shepherd, or nomadic zone. 
Her special work will appear as we advance. It is well here to remark that 
the purposes of Russia and those of Jehovah are quite unlike. The plans 
of Russia and her policy are clearly set forth in the will of Peter the 
Great; God's purposes are fully set forth by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 279 

Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and by the Revelations of St. John. We know, 
also, that God's will shall finally triumph. Russia aims at universal 
dominion for its despotic empire. The autocrat, being supreme head of 
church and state, would claim to be the royal high priest of the whole 
earth — the king of kings, and priest of priests. God has reserved that high 
and honorable position for His own dear Son. Hence, as wc progress in 
our Russian narrative we shall notice the deviations from Russian policy 
as Divine interpositions, aside from these overrulings of the northern 
despot, to bring about another class of purposes — those of Jehovah. We 
could write out the history of Russia's future from what we know of her 
past. Russia aims to possess the imperial zone, and by it to place upon 
her head the diadem of universal empire, with the absolute power to dic- 
tate all thought, social, moral, religious, and political. This power Russia 
proposes to secure in the following manner : (1) to get possession of Con- 
stantinople and drive the Turk out of Europe. (2) As she now holds 
Turkestan, the original home of the Turks, and having such a hold in 
Anatolia, the Turkish empire in Asia, would readily be absorbed. (3) 
Palestine, being part of the Ottoman Asiatic empire, would fall to her 
with all its sacred localities ; and the Russian Greek Church would rule the 
eastern world. (4) Persia would then be conquered; and the Russian em- 
pire would bound the British East Indies on the north and west. A ter- 
rible conflict with the British in India would ultimate in her conquest 
of the British East Indies, The next conflict of Russia in her pro- 
gress to the East would be with the French. Here the struggle would 
be far less severe, since the French power would be much inferior 
to that of England. Her next conquest would be the Chinese em- 
pire. She would not then find this a very difiicult task. China being con- 
quered Japan would submit without any severe struggle. Asia conquered 
Egypt would fall, the British being driven out. Africa would be virtually 
in her hands. With all these conquests the dominion of the seas may still 
belong to the British. The conquest of Europe would be the next in order. 
All her eastern conquests, compared with this, would be as the dust of the 
balance. The three families of the second, or Gothic Scythian, or German 
emigration, Germany, France, and England, grown up into mighty em- 
pires, with civilization and military drill vastly in advance of her own, 
would furnish Russia abundance of military and diplomatic exercise, in 
order to their subjugation. It would require the Russians to divide these 
nations by exciting quarrels among them, and raising up divisions, as in 
the instructions given in Peter's will. These conquests, to extend over the 
world, to make Russia a fifth universal monarchy, would require, perhaps, 
a thousand years. It is very evident that such a history of tho future of 
the Russian empire, though it might agree with Peter's visionary will, in 
all its principal features, is not quite the prophetic chart of Russia's future. 
God, by His direct interference with autocratic will, by His Almighty 
power, shapes events into the form of His own predicted purposes. We 
have only one source from which we are able to draw the true ele- 
ments of Russian history through the coming age of ages. The holy seers 



280 THE EA&TERN QUESTION, 

of old, with their prophetic glasses, swept time's rough and tempestuous 
ocean ; tracing each nation in its voyage to the boundless, breezeless sea. 
That chart of Russian history we shall now take the liberty to follow. Eze- 
kiel's chart (Eze. xxxviii and xxxix) shall be our main guide, aided by the 
charts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah and John in his Apocalypse. 
Let us now place before us Ezekiel's chart and turn to his delineations of a 
great northern power preparatory to, in, and after its invasion of the land 
of Israel. What wicked power occupies this portion of Ezekiel's chart? 
No expositor has excluded Russia. The features are too distinct for any 
mistake as to the chief royal personage. 

But what record has the chart ? Let us read and note carefully. 
Ezekiel xxxviii. vs. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying: 
Where was Ezekiel when this " word " came to him ? In the valley where 
he had seen the vision of dry bones — the whole house of Israel in their 
dispersion and restitution. Their reunion had been illustrated by the 
union of two sticks. These events will be fully noticed under the Hebrew 
Phase of the " Eastern Question." The prophet is carried forward to a 
period subsequent to this Restitution, and a period of prosperity to the 
Hebrew nationality. 

Vs. 2. Son of man. Set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the 
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him. " Gog," 
who is he? The Divine answer is, " He is of the land of Magog, and the 
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." Modern Geography calls no countries 
by those names. The explanation was, however, sufficient for Ezekiel, and 
must, therefore, have been well known to this holy seer. Magog was 
the second son of Japheth (Gen. x. 2). The land where he dwelt took 
his name, and was thus named in the days of Ezekiel. B. C. 587, and 
1,861 years after Japheth's son had dwelt there. His name still adhered 
to the land, and, as Ezekiel knew it by no other name, it was proper so to 
call it, though, at the time of this invasion, it had some other name. Mes- 
hech was the fifth son of Japheth, and Tubal was the sixth son. Gog 
would appear to be a native of Magog, and the chief ruler of those other 
countries, that of Meshech and of Tubal. 

Our history of the tribal elements that were fused to make the Russian 
is so full that no further remarks as to the existence of these nations in the 
Russian empire will be required. We shall simply refer the reader to those 
sketches and pass on. 

Vs. 4. And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I 
will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them 
clothed with all sorts (of armor), (even) a great company (with) bucklers 
and shields, all of them handling swords. " The turning back " " and put- 
ting hooks in thy jaws," are events which transpire in the earlier parts of 
Gog's history, and shows the perfect control which God exercised over that 
power. " I am against thee." The pronoun " I " shows the Divine agency. 
God manages that power to carry out His own purposes. When He leaves 
His northern field before Jehovah's time as He has done seven times ; per- 
haps we may say six. God drew him back when the appointed time comes 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 281 

to execute judgment upon him, God says, "I will bring thee forth," held 
back, then brought forth to His execution. This supreme control of Jeho- 
vah demands special note. Since it demonstrates God's sovereignty over 
the nations. 

Vss. 5 and 6. Persia, Ethiopia, and Lybia with them ; all of them 
with shield and helmet. Gonier, and all his bands ; the house of Togar- 
mah of the north quarters, and all his bands. We have shown at some 
length that Gomer is not Germany, " Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya." How 
came these enrolled in the army of Gog, or Russia? When and under 
what circumstances were Persia, Ethiopia and Libya subjugated by the 
Russian empire ? Were these countries, at the time of this invasion, 
provinces of the Russian empire ? or were these simply mercenary soldiers ? 
whom the gold of Russia had hired to fight against Israel and Judah, 
enticed into the great northern army through hatred of the Hebrews and 
a desire of plunder ? These are questions which are not readily answered. 
There is a part of Russia's future history not down on Ezekiel's chart. 
Where is Russia, and how is she occupied from the present time (1884) to 
her appearance in her confederated armies on the mountains of Israel? 
We must examine this period on the other prophetic charts. We may not 
be left to conjecture. That the Persians were in her army presents no dif- 
ficulty ; for Persia has to be conquered in her eastern progress to India, ac- 
cording to the instructions of Peter's will, but as to Ethiopia and Libya 
there needs to be some further investigation. In Gen. ii. 13, describing 
Eden, we have this language : And the name of the second river (is) 
Gihon ; the same (is) it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. No 
one can for a moment suppose that Ethiopia, here named, is the African 
Ethiopia, since it would be Geographically absurd. The Hebrew and 
English margin — Cush. But there are four countries which, in the Bible, 
are called Cush, from the sons of Cush having, at different times, changed 
their residence. Major Wilford says this (Ethiopia) must be Balk, or 
Bactria. Ethiopia in the Hebrew of Eze, xxxviii. 5 is tJ^I^, Cush and 
Libya is tD)^, Phut ; and Persia is D*l5 Pa-ras, because divided into so 

many mountains, valleys and plains, and interspersed with so many salt 
lakes and marshes. Persia proper is here intended. It would seem that 
countries connected as these three are should be somewhat geographically 
associated. Still we shall not contend. Russia may have carried her con- 
quests into Africa before her forces gather on the mountains of Israel. On 
this point we shall consult the chart of Daniel. Dan. xi. 36-45. A king 
shall do according to his will ; hence he is called the " wilful king." One 
expositor says of the above title. "It is equally applicable to Antiochus 
(Epiphanes) to the Romans, to the Anti-Christ, and many others." This 
king is also said to be Napoleon; others say he is the Autocrat of Russia. 
One point is worthy of note that, according to all the views, we are at the 
time of the end when these events are in process of accomplishment ; for the 
French and Russian Autocrats are one in their elements of character — 
despots — aiming to deprive the Messiah of universal empire and truly 
presecuting His holy people. 



282 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

v. 7. Be thou prepared and prepare for thyself thou and all thy com- 
pany that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. The 
chronology of the events which are involved in this command, is a point of 
very considerable interest to aid us to write correctly the Russian future or 
prophetic history. What period is covered by these preparations which the 
Almighty orders Gog to make ? What are these preparations? The period 
is anterior to the gathering and covers that space of time that extends from 
the present to the gathering period. It is the period of Russian drill and 
military preparation, a period of great activity. It is the day of God's 
preparation of the nations for the contest on the mountains of Israel for the 
diadem of the earth ; to decide whether it shall continue under the curse of 
human Gentile domination or come under the righteous government of 
the Messiah. As Russia gathers all the North and East her preparation 
will be on a scale of vast dimensions. " Be thou prepared." Strengthen 
thy government in all its departments, thyself being its despotic head. 
"And prepare for thyself" all thy subjects and thy tribes. Gather thy 
forces, mustering into service and drilling. Associate under thy banners 
the entire nomadic zone. Associate and fuse discordant masses, educate 
them for the vast invasion of thy people, Israel. Gather munitions of war. 
Fill and put in order thy commissaries. " Be thou a guard unto them (all 
thy company assembled unto thee). Make an immense camp of these 
tribal undisciplined hosts. Throw around them a guard of thy drilled 
soldiers ; enroll them, drill them and muster them into service. Swell thy 
forces to the utmost that they may be a fair test of the strength of thy mil- 
itary arm. It requires no very close scrutiny to discern such preparations 
now in progress. Why such a vast increase of armies and navies ? Why 
are they moving eastward ? Why has Russia proposed a ship canal from 
the Baltic east to the Caspian sea and onward toward the Celestial empire ? 
Why is she pushing her boundaries southward and southeast toward Persia 
and India. 

V. 8. After many days thou shalt be visited ; in the latter years thou 
shalt come into the land (that is) brought back from the sword, (and is) 
gathered out of the many people against the mountains of Israel, which 
have always been waste ; but it is brought forth out of the nations and they 
shall dwell safely, all of them. " After many days thou shalt be visited." 
Boothroyd, following the Chaldee, "Thou shalt number (or enroll) them," 
i. e. all the barbarian forces from the north, "Against," rather " upon," the 
mountains, which have been always "long" waste. "After many days in 
the latter years " thou shalt enroll the barbarians. The seer looks back over 
the whole period of Gog's existence to the days of old when he persecuted 
Judah under the name of the " Assyrian," and held him in cruel and long- 
protracted bondage, glances at his tyrant rule under various names, then 
sees him spring up as the great northern despot. He has his former and 
latter years. His enrollment that here attracts Ezekiel's notice is the one that 
is in his latter years, now about to transpire. Such a historic sketch of Gog 
as is recorded in this verse demands more than a mere passing notice. We 
have investigated the Hebrew to be fully satisfied of its true meaning. Our 



KUSSIAN PHASE. 283 

rendering is as follows : After many days thou (Gog) shalt enroll or number 
(the nations of the north) ; in the latter years thou, Gog, shalt come into the 
land (earth) recovered from the sword ; recovered from many people (as its 
conquerors) upon the mountains of Israel, which have a long time been 
waste, but is recovered from the nations (that have conquered) and they 
(Israel and Judah) shall dwell safely, all of them. That land (of Israel) 
has been conquered, (1) by the Assyrians, (2) Persians, (3) Greco-Macedoni- 
ans, (4) Romans, (5) Saracens, (6) Scythians, (7) the German nations under 
the Crusades, (8) and by the Turks, who still hold possession. Here eight 
conquests by the sword. Ezekiel speaks of it at a time when its legal own- 
ers, the Hebrews, have quiet possession of it after being recovered from the 
sword. With these interpretations and explanations we, pass on. 

V. 9. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a 
cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many people with thee. 
In a season of thunder showers, about 10 o'clock a. m. small clouds (cumuli) 
begin to gather. The cloud soon, by its attraction of other columns "of as- 
cending vapor, it grows into a mountain with a dark base. It assumes such 
magnitude as to darken the land. A flash of lightning darts through the 
gathering mass and the tempest soon follows. The prophet uses this figure 
to represent Gog and his forces gathering on the mountains of Israel, an ap- 
propriate simile. The mingled nations gathering on the mountains of Is- 
rael seem like a gathering tempest bursting in fury over the land. 

V. 10. Thus saith the Lord God : It shall also come to pass (that) at 
the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an 
evil thought (conceive a mischievous purpose). The prophet does not nar- 
rate events in the order of sequence. Nature's order is from cause to effect. 
Ezekiel reverses this order. The horrors of the invasion wake up his pas- 
sions, which for a time absorb his being. Becoming somewhat calm he runs 
back, in his mind, to the origin and moving causes of this invasion. It was 
an evil thought that arose in the mind of Gog. A fit of covetousness seized 
his mind and soon begat its legitimate fruits. He contrasts his power and 
wants with Israel's wealth and weakness. 

Vs. 11-12. And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of un walled vil- 
lages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwell- 
ing without walls and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil and to 
take a prey, to turn thy hand upon the desolate places, (that are now) in- 
habited, and Tjipon the people (that are) out of the nations which have got- 
ten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. 

Such is the record of Gog's covetous thought. Let us pause for a mo- 
ment and analyze that covetous thought that occupied the mind of this 
great power; for though a great empire is intended by the term Gog, yet it is 
so perfectly under the control of one mind in its absolutism, that it is al- 
ways addressed as one individual, though it includes a succession of emper- 
ors. These two verses will come up for investigation under the Hebrew 
phase. We shall now confine our remarks to the thought and its author. 
His thought is one of robbery, plunder. He purposes to rob innocent, 
harmless citizens, who have no fears, and are, therefore living without any 



284 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

visible protection. Why he comes with such a mighty army, is not stated. 
Robbers are usually armed according to the perils anticipated, but, as this 
national robber did not look for any resistance from this people, whom he 
purposed to rob, his conduct in bringing such an armed multitude, can 
be explained only by the fact that the Hebrews were in some manner 
under the care of some great power well known to Gog, and with whom 
he looked for a sharp contest. Our second remark will be of some inter- 
est. The motives of Jehovah and 9f Gog in this invasion. 

Gog seems to act out his own covetous purposes without any restraint, 
and yet Jehovah declares that he himself brings him with all his hosts for 
the honor of his own name. "I will magnify myself, sanctify myself." Je- 
hovah exercises control over Gog so as to bring him with all his hosts to 
the judgment. God has a right to punish criminals by whatever agents, 
and in whatever manner He deems best suited to the honor of His own 
name. 

Vs. 13. Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all 
the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee : Art thou come to take a 
spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away 
silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil ? Four 
classes of men, those of Sheba, Dedan, Merchants of Tarshish, with all the 
young lions, interrogate Gog as to the object of his extraordinary visit. 
Who are these classes ? Why should they interfere? Was it to rob them ? 
Why should they busy themselves in other men's matters ? (1) Sheba, 
where located ? How occupied ? In Arabia Felix, or Yemen. It is said 
in Gen. xxv, "And Jokshan (the son of Abraham by Keturah) begat Sheba 
and Dedan. They settled in Arabia Felix, and became Arabian merchants 
and very wealthy. Ezekiel speaks of them as merchants of Tyre." Eze. 
xxvii. 15. The men of Dedan (were) thy merchants. Vs. 20. Dedan was 
thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots. Vs. 22. The merchants of 
Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants; they occupied in thy fairs 
with chief of all spices and with all precious stones and gold. These mer- 
chants of Yemen (north of the present Yemen) were the Phoenicians of 
Arabia; wealthy, widely extended, and enterprising people, of fine stature 
and noble bearing. They were great in their traffic in gold and perfumes, 
spice, incense and precious stones. Yemen, however, was only productive 
in corn, wine and ordinary products. They, however, held the key to 
India, and were the intermediate factors between Egypt and Syria, which 
again spread the imported wares over Europe. When Ptolemy and Phila- 
delphus (B. C. 274) had established an Indian emporium in Egypt, they 
still remained the sole monopolists of the Indian trade, being the only 
navigators that undertook the dangerous voyage. Like the Phoenicians they 
kept secret the track of their ships, and pretended that these costly metals, 
spices and articles were the products of their own country. They sold 
their silks to the Romans in the 3rd century at the rate of a pound for a 
pound of gold. They became luxurious, effeminate and idle. The liiean- 
est utensils in the houses of these merchant princes were, according to 
Greek writers, wrought in the most cunning fashion, and were of gold and 



BRITISH PHASuE. 285 

silver; their vases were incrusted with gems, their fire- wood was cinna- 
mon. Their colonies extended over immense tracts of Asia. Sheba (Ye- 
men) occupies the southwestern part of Arabia. Its peninsula, Aden, con- 
tains about 20 square miles, on which Aden (Eden paradise) the Gibraltar 
of Asia and Africa, is located. It is on the direct route through the Suez 
canal, Red sea and Indian ocean to India. In 1838 accession of Aden, by- 
its Sultan, was made to England. On Jan. 11,, 1839, after a few hours' con- 
test, it fell into the hands of the British. Its population is now about 
35,000, a busy population. In 1872 its imports were £1,404,169, its exports 
£835,919. Yemen is the paradise of Arabia. Their past history is interest- 
ing, but what more especially demands our attention is the position of the 
men (merchants) of Sheba and Dedan in this future invasion of Gog. 
They appear to be nationally interested in the affairs of Israel as th'3y 
dwell safely in the land of un walled villages. They were, in all proba- 
bility, merchants of the Jews at that time, as the ancient Subseans were of 
Tyre. This thought opens a wide field for future investigation ; the vast 
improvements of Arabia in the age of subjugation. 

" Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish with all the young 
lions thereof." Sheba and Dedan were the sons of Jokshan, who was the 
son of Abraham by Keturah. Being brothers and sent by Abraham into 
the east country (Arabia) they would naturally seek the most fertile parts 
of that country. Sheba gave his name to the southwestern Arabia, now 
called Yemen, the paradise of Arabia. Dedan gave his name to the south- 
east Arabia, now denominated Oman, chief town, Muscat. Some of De- 
dan's posterity went further towards the north and east, and finally reached 
India. Ezekiel names two other members of this future merchant com- 
mercial firm. The merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof. 
We gave some notes on Tarshish under the " British Phase." It will now 
be as well, in this place, to group all the items of history relative to Tar- 
shish in order to fully understand the injport of this enunciation of Eze- 
kiel xxxviii. 13. In doing this we shall assume what have been demon- 
strated and believed by such able ethnologists as Blumenbach, Dr. Prichard, 
and Dr. Latham and Retzius : (1) The unity of the human race; (2) the 
fact of a deluge ; (3) the re-peopling of the earth by the three sons of 
Noah, (a) Shem ; (&) Ham ; (c) Japheth ; (d) and the general apportion- 
ment of Asia, Africa, and Europe. 

It is interesting to follow these men and their posterity as they grad- 
ually spread over the eastern world giving names to the countries they 
occupy ; their own proper names adhering to the lands, a custom followed 
through all ages, and now practiced. Such appears to be the origin of 
geographical names, both ancient and modern. Some times the ancient 
name of a country or a district comes down to us unchanged, generally, 
however, with names modified or entirely new. The most ancient names 
are from the Bible as it contains the most ancient history. 

Let us now turn to the Scriptures relative to the origin and history of 
Tarshish. 

Prom Gen. x. 1-4 we learn that Tarshish was the son of Javan, who 



286 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

was the son of Japheth ; who was the son of Noah. Vs. 5. By these 
(families of Japheth — W.) were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their 
lands , every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nation. 
"Isles of the Gentiles." "This expression comprehends all those coun- 
tries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea, whether in Europe or 
in Asia Minor." — Calmet. Tarshish settled somewhere in Europe; either 
on the continent or on some one of its islands. His original location, or 
farm, was somewhere west of Palestine, to which persons went by ships on 
the Great Sea, which was called " Sea of Tarshish," that being its most 
ancient name. Mediterranean (middte of the earth) being an appellation 
of more recent date. Tarshish's name adhered to the land that he occu- 
pied ; hence the location was called Tarshish. Through centuries it was 
called by that name ; and so also was the sea named on which they sailed 
to reach that distant land. We shall, for the present, confine our investiga- 
tions to this original or Western Tarshish. (1) Where was it ? (2) What 
were its products ? (3) What people made its immense commerce? These 
questions, with others. We propose to examine, both from the Bible and 
profane history. The next notice of this western Tarshish, which we find 
in sacred history, is recorded in Jonah (B. C. 862) 1, 3. " But Jonah rose 
up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to 
Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish ; so he paid the fare thereof, 
and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of 
the Lord. Joppa was a sea-port on the Mediterranean. Consequently he 
had to sail on that sea to reach the western Tarshish. This voyage of 
Jonah was more than twelve hundred years, probably, after the first settle- 
ment of Tarshish. A splendid commerce had grown up between the 
Phoenicians and Tarshish. That commerce had done much to make Tyre 
a proud city of merchant princes. Isaiah says (B. C. 715) : Howl ye 
ships of Tarshish ; for it (Tyre — W.) is laid waste, so that there is no 
house, no entering in ; from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. Is. 
xxiii. 1 vs. 6. " Pass ye over to Tarshish." Vs. 10. " Pass through thy 
land daughter Tarshish." " Tyre is probably called the ' daughter of 
Tarshish ' from the close connexion and perpetual intercourse between 
them, to which the former owed much of her greatness." — Bagster. What 
were the products of Tarshish ? Ezekiel, speaking to Tyre, says : " Tar- 
shish (was) thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all (kind of) 
riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, and traded in thy fairs." Vs. 25. 
" The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market ; and thou wast re- 
plenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas." We have 
traced this western Tarshish, in its past history, as far as the Bible gives us 
any knowlege. We should infer that it was well towards the western ex- 
tremity of the Mediterranean Sea. Since the entire sea had that name ; 
and, therefore, the ships of Tarshish traversed the entire length of the sea 
to obtain their silver, iron, tin, and lead. It would have been very dif- 
ficult to have found those metals in paying quantities nearer to Tyre than 
Spain. We shall now examine the testimony of secular history relative to 
the location of this Western Tarshish. Javan was the father of Tarshish 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 287 

and Kittim. On an ancient map of Ptolemy, England and Scotland are 
called Javan. They are called on those early maps " Isles of the West." So 
also in the Bible. On those ancient maps the western coast of Europe, in- 
cluding France, Spain and Portugal, has the name of Tarshish. '■' Tar- 
shish was the west coast of Europe, afterwards called Gaul, and in later 
times Spain and France." — Hillier. "All agree that Tarshish is Spain, 
sometimes called Tartessus, from two Greek words ' Thars-eis,' ' Nesas,' the 
Islands of Tarshish." — Bochart. So also do Aristotle, Strabo, and Pausanias 
Aviernus testify. Others derive it from "Tar," a border, " Shish," white, 
bright, shining, a name given to England from the whiteness of its chalk 
cliffs. We place but little worth in these derivations, since those coun- 
tries had their name from their first occupant, Tarshish, and we have 
shown the location of the country Tarshish. The Tyrians fled to Tar- 
shish from the arms of Alexander the Great. 

All the ancients seem to locate Tarshish in Spain. Dr. Wm. Smith, 
in his Bible Dictionary, gives Spain as its original locality. He says : 
"Tarshish, 1. Probably Tartessus, a city and emporium of the. Phoenicians 
in the south of Spain." " The identity of the two places is rendered highly 
probable by the following circumstances : 1st. There is a very close 
similarity of name between them, Tartessus being merely Tarshish in the 
Aramaic form. 2dly. There seems to have been a special relation be- 
tween Tarshish and Tyre, as there was at one time between Tartes- 
sus and the Phoenicians. 3dly. The articles which Tarshish is stated 
by the prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 12) to have supplied to Tyre are pre- 
cisely such as we know, through classical writers, to have been pro- 
ductions of the Spanish peninsula. In regard to tin, the trade of 
Tarshish in this metal is peculiarly significant, and, taken in conjunc- 
tion with similarity of name and other circumstances already men- 
tioned, is reasonably conclusive as to its identity with Tartessus. For 
even now the countries in Europe, or on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, where tin is found, are very few; and, in reference to ancient 
times, it would be difficult to name any such countries, except Iberia or 
Spain, Lusitania, which was somewhat less in extent than Portugal and 
Cornwall in Great Britain. In the absence of positive proof, we may ac- 
quiesce in the statement of Strabo, that the river Bsetis (now the Guadal- 
quivir) was formerly called Tartessus, that the city Tartessus was situated 
between the two arms by which the river flowed into the sea, and that the 
adjoining country was called Tartessus. This being the original location 
of Tarshish, the son of Javan, who dwelt in England, it can not be sup- 
posed that these families would, for twelve centuries, remain stationary, or 
that the ships of Tarshish would not take in the immense tin deposits 
of Cornwall. The probability is that in the process of years all that 
country, rich in mines of silver, iron, tin, and lead, would take the name 
of the ships that visited them ; and of the sea, over which the ships of 
Tarshish were constantly passing. For the same reason those men carry- 
ing on the commerce would be called the merchants of Tarshish. Such 
being a legitimate conclusion, we close our discussion of the location, ex- 



288 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tent, and character of western Tarshish, by the remark that this commer- 
cial enterprise had one great centre at ancient Tyre, and that it was car- 
ried on principally by the merchant princes of Phoenicia. 

We are now prepared to examine the eastern branch of this ancient 
commercial enterprise. In this eastern enterprise Tyre is a partner with 
the Hebrews, under Solomon. Of the eastern commercial enterprise, Jeru- 
salem is made the chief emporium and way stations are erected. The east- 
ern commercial line commenced at Ezion-geber, on the ^lanitic gulf of the 
Red sea, passed down that sea to the Indian ocean, then coasted along the 
southern boundaries of Arabia, and terminated somewhere eastward in In- 
dia and Ceylon. We shall first examine what the Bible says relative to this 
eastern route to, what is understood to be, an eastern or Indian Tarshish. 
This eastern channel was opened for commerce by Solomon, (B. C. 1015-975). 
"King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which (is) beside 
Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram 
(King of Tyre — W.) sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowl- 
edge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir 
and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought 
(it) to King Solomon." I. Ki., ix., 26, 27, 28. " For the King's ships went 
to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram ; every three years came the 
ships of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks." 
Michaels, a distinguished writer, thinks that the fleet of Solomon coasted 
along the shore of Africa, doubling the Cape of Good Hope and came toTar- 
tessus, in Spain, and thence back again the same way ; that this accounts 
for their three years' voyage out and home, and that Spain and the coasts 
of Africa furnish all the commodities which they brought back." — Bagster. 
This view is liable to some very serious objections. (1.) The voyage would 
not have been undertaken without some knowledge of the extent of Africa. 
(2.) It could not have been accomplished in three years. He could have 
taken the Phcenician route. (3.) All the articles could not have been found 
either in Spain or in Africa, or in both. 

The articles which Solomon's fleet brought home were "gold, silvei, 
ivory and peacocks." Gold and silver could have been obtained in West- 
ern Africa or in various localities along its coasts. Ivory also migfht have 
been obtained in abundance, but peacocks could not have been found either 
in Africa or in Europe. It is very generally agreed that the peacock is a 
native only of India. The Hebrew words for ivory, apes and peacocks are 
of Indian origin, which shows conclusively that those articles were brought 
by Solomon's merchant ships from India. We quote from the Hebrew text 
of I. Ki., X. 22, simply that part of the verse translated " ivory and apes and 
peacocks." D^^DiH) D^0p!l D*3»l^??^- ^® shall give each word with its defi- 
nition from the Hebrew lexicon : 0''^r\^t^ — Shen-hav-bim, ivory or ele- 
phant's teeth. (I. Ki., x. 22.) Another lexicon says elephant's tooth, ivory 
(the word is probably a compound of "t^ — shen, a tooth, and '2tl — hav, an ele- 
phant, from the Sanscrit Ibha.) D*^p1 — koph-im, apes— Sanscrit Kapi; 
D^^Dill — tuk-kim, peacocks. Tukki cannot be explained in Hebrew, but is 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 289 

akin to toka in the Tamil language. By India we include the Indian 
islands, such as Ceylon. Now if these products had been the natural prod- 
ucts of Africa or Spain they would have been called in the Hebrew tongue 
by names which would point to such localities, and not by those names by 
which they were known in India. To us their names are conclusive evi- 
dence that they were obtained in India or in Ceylon. The peacock, itself, 
being a native only of India and of the countries east, would be sufficient 
to decide in what direction Solomon's vessels sailed. The vast numbers of 
those pea-fowls in India, Siam, etc., are still further proof of their eastern 
origin, since they were sufficiently numerous to make them an article of 
commerce. The accounts which Orientalists give are very interesting. Col. 
Williamson says : " Whole woods were covered with their beautiful plum- 
age, to which the rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. The small 
patches of plain among the long grass, most of them cultivated, and with 
mustard then in bloom, which induced the birds to feed, increased the 
beauty of the scene, and I speak within bounds when I assert that there 
could not be less than 1,200 or 1,500 pea-fowls of various sizes, within sight 
of the spot where I stood for near an hour." Sir Emerson Tennent, also, in 
his work on Ceylon, says that "in some of the unfrequented portions of the 
eastern province to which Europeans rarely resort, and where the pea-fowls 
are unmolested by the natives, their number is so extraordinary that, re- 
garded as game it ceases to be ' sport ' to destroy them, and their cries at 
early morning are so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, amount 
to an actual inconvenience." The harsh cry of the peacock seems to have 
been imitated in its Greek name, taos, and probably has given rise also to 
the Latin pavo and the English peacock. Peafowls so numerous as these 
would make an article of commerce worthy of historic note. 

Why should the vessels constructed at Ezion-geber be called ships of 
Tarshish if they were not designed to go to Tarshish. They might take 
the name of those vessels after whose pattern they were constructed. They 
were built by Hiram's ship-carpenters and therefore built after the pattern 
of those vessels that sailed on the sea of Tarshish, in the commerce between 
Tyre and Tarshish of the West. Dr. William Smith says: ''The expres- 
sion, 'ships of Tarshish,' originally meant ships destined to go to Tarshish, 
and then probably came to signify large Phoenician ships of a particular 
size and description, destined for long voyages, just as in English ' East-In- 
diaman ' was a general name given to vessels, some of which were not in- 
tended to go to India at all. Hence we may infer that the word Tarshish 
was also used to signify any distant place, and in this case would be applied 
to o;ie in the Indian ocean." 

If anyone will examine the position of Ezion-geber he can readily see 
that it is not conveniently located for any western commerce. Take into 
consideration the fact that at that time Solomon owned much of the sea 
coast along the east end of the Mediterranean, (sea of Tarshish) and was on 
the most friendly terms with Hiram, King of Tyre, whose merchants owned 
the ships of Tarshish that navigated the Mediterranean sea, and could have 
supplied Solomon with all the products of Western Tarshish, and it will 
19 



290 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

appear very evident that Solomon's Red-sea fleet was built for eastern com- 
merce. 

Solomon was familiar with the wealth of the Indies. Much informa- 
tion was obtained from the Arabian merchants residing in Sheba and De- 
dan who visited Jerusalem and were quite familiar with India. They were 
the '' Phoenicians " of the Red sea and of the Indian ocean. Solomon was 
a great commercial king and brought to Jerusalem the products of all lands. 
He had, long before the building of his fleet, established a caravan route to 
the Indies. To facilitate its operations Solomon built Tadmor (Palmyra — 
W.) in the wilderness. Mr. Porter, in his " Oriental Sketches," has the fol- 
lowing: "The question has been frequently asked: Why did Solomon 
build a city in the midst of the desert, so far from his own kingdom ? The 
answer is easy to anyone who knows the history of the period and the geog- 
raphy of Bible lands. One of his great aims was to make Palestine the cen- 
tre of commercial enterprise. To secure a safe and easy route for caravans 
that imported the treasures of India, Persia and Mesopotamia, was of the 
first importance. Tadmor lies half way between the Euphrates and the 
borders of Syria. It contains the only copious fountains in that arid des- 
ert. Some halting-place was necessary. Water was absolutely necessary. 
Consequently Palmyra was founded as a caravan station. As Solomon's 
wealth increased so were his desires enlarged. Many articles which he 
wanted were not suited to caravan transportation. Glancing over a map of 
those eastern countries he would readily see that the distance from Ezion- 
geber, on the Red sea, and the caravan route to Southern India and the Red 
sea were about the same. This naturally suggested the idea of a sea route, 
and a fleet of merchant ships is made, each one by Phoenician ship-carpen- 
ters, and after the pattern of those vessels which they had constructed for 
the sea and trade of Tarshish. They would be called from their shape and 
size ships of Tarshish ; the commerce would be called the commerce of the 
ships of Tarshish. After a time the ports and lands visited would assume 
the name and an eastern Tarshish would spring into existence. Such, 
we think, is a fair solution of the object of the Red sea fleet. Now Solomon 
was noted for his wisdom, but to have built a fleet in the Red sea for the 
commerce of Spain, France and England or western Tarshish, when he 
could have controlled the Mediterranean sea for that commerce, would have 
been extreme folly. 

It is a source of great pleasure, as well as of knowledge, to trace in 
difierent ages of the world, the changes of its great commercial centers 
from that of ancient Egypt at Memphis, Babylon of the Assyrian empire 
Athens of Greece, Rome of the Latin Empire, Constantinople, of the 
Greek and Ottoman empires; St. Petersburg of the Russian empire, and 
London of the British empire. Other smaller commercial centers existed in 
early ages of the world. Those of special interest in our present investiga- 
tion were at Tyre and Jerusalem, in the days of Solomon, King of Israel. 
Tyre was building up her commerce with the nations along the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, principally by her commerce with Tarshish, and with Sheba 
and Dedan towards the east. During the reign of Solomon the great com- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 291 

mercial center of the world was at Jerusalem ; and it was the commercial 
centre for all nations in the days of Solomon and during his reign. Why 
may it not be again, under the reign of one "greater than Solomon?" 
Under the Phoenicians and Hebrews there were two commercial systems 
and two commercial centres. (1) A western system between Tyre and 
Tarshish, in the ships of Tarshish, and on the Sea of Tarshish ; (2) between 
Jerusalem and India, with ships of Tarshish (after their model), by way of 
the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. These continued to be two distinct com- 
mercial systems for centuries. When all the commercial centres had often 
been changed, and the seat of empire had moved to Western Europe, or per- 
haps long before that time, various projects were being talked of by the 
nations especially interested of uniting the two S3''stems by opening a water 
communication between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, then separted by 
a strip of land 72 miles wide. In ancient times, yet centuries since the 
days of Solomon, a canal was made connecting (indirectly) the two seas. 
When it was commenced, or when it was finished, is not known. Herodo- 
tus dates the projection back to Pharaoh Necho (B.C. 600). Others, such as 
Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny, go still further back. Its completion is 
assigned by some to Darius, King of Persia; by others to the Ptolemies. It 
began at about a mile and a half from Suez, and was carried in a north-west 
direction through a remarkable series of natural depressions to Bubastis, on 
the Pelusiac or eastern branch of the Nile. Its entire length was 92 miles 
(of which upward of 60 were cut by human labor), its width from 108 to 
165 feet, and its depth 15 (Pliny says 30) feet. How long it was used is 
not known, but the drifting sands filled and ruined it. It was cleared out 
and put in order by Trajan in the early part of the second century after 
Christ, but was again filled and remained filled till the conquest of Egypt 
by Amrou, the Arab general of the Calif Omar, who caused it to be re- 
opened, and named it ''Canal of the Prince of the Faithful," under which 
name it continued to be employed for upwards of a. century, but was finally 
blocked up by the unconquerable sands, A. D. 767. In this condition it has 
ever since remained. 

In modern times the attention was called to it by the invasion of 
Egypt, under the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. He caused the isthmus 
to be surveyed by a body of engineers, who made the Mediterranean 30 
feet below the Red Sea at Suez. A subsequent survey, under the joint 
patronage of France, England and Austria, made the two seas on exactly the 
same mean level. In 1858 a railway was opened from Cairo to Suez, which 
conveys overland all the European mails to India and Australia. The 
Suez Canal of M. de Lesseps extends from sea to sea, and was opened Nov. 
10, 1869, and has been in successful operation to the present. Its business 
has so vastly increased that the building of a second canal is now being 
discussed. For more particular discription of this canal, see under the 
British Phase of the Eastern Question. 

"And the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof." 
We have been at considerable pains to trace the rise and growth of two 
ancient commercial systems, both of which were in operation in the days 



292 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of Ezekiel. (1) the one, Western Tarshish, situated in Spain, at its com- 
mencement, but extending its boundaries as the demands for its products 
(" silver, iron, tin, and lead " ) increased till it finally took in all the western 
coast of Europe and the British Isles. The great mart in Ezekiel's day 
was Tyre; then Rome and Carthage. The Phoenicians were those mer- 
chants ; principally of Tyre and Sidon. The ships built for that trade 
were called ships of Tarshish, the sea on which they sailed, was then de- 
nominated '' Sea of Tarshish." (2) The other system was towards the 
East, between Jerusalem and Palestine, and India, with its islands — the 
eastern water route being on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. In the days 
of Ezekiel the eastern route was held by the Arabian tribes, Sheba and 
Dedan, the Phoenicians of the Indian Ocean. It was opened by Solomon 
from Ezion-geber, on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, to Southern India and 
Ceylon. We traced the union of those two commercial systems in ancient 
times. As western Europe verged towards modern times a route to the In- 
dies was opened by sailing around Africa. The Tarshish commercial sys- 
tem, ruined, the second time, by drifting sands, was abandoned and the 
route was no more a subject of thought till the conquest of Egypt by Na- 
poleon. The new route, originated by M. de Lesseps, connects the two seas 
direct. The growth of the commerce on this direct highway between the 
West and the East, and the chief nations in the scheme, claim special note. 
The chief nationalities are England, France, and Spain, with Portugal. To 
the British empire it is of superior worth, since it is her direct highway be- 
tween the two great divisions of her empire, England and India. If France 
gets possession of the peninsula of Farther India her commerce through 
the Suez canal will be vastly increased, and another ship canal would be 
required for the commerce of Great Britain and France. The value of this 
ship route through Egypt will appear in the rapid growth of its commerce, 
seen in the following statistics : 

It was opened Nov. 16, 1869. In 1870, 491 ships, of 436,618 tons, 
passed through ; and in 1874, 1,264 ships, of 2,424,000 tons. About 70 per 
cent, of this shipping and tonnage belongs to Great Britain. The great 
advantage of the route is, of course, the shortening of the distance between 
Europe and India. From London or Hamburg to Bombay is, by the Cape 
of Good Hope, 11,220 miles ; but by Suez only 6,332 miles. The voyage 
is, therefore, shortened 24 days. From Marseilles or Genoa there is a sav- 
ing of 30 days ; from Triest, of 37 days. The canal has yielded a fair per 
cent, on the cost. To Dec. 1869, the cost of the canal was £11,627,000. The 
canal charges are 10 francs per ton, and 10 francs per head for passengers. 
The receipts for 1873 amounted to 22,755,862 francs, or £911,032 ; for 1875 
(when 1,494 ships passed through), to 28,879,735 francs, or £1,155,185; 
for 1876 (1,457 ships passed), 31,143,762 francs (£1,245,750). France with 
Farther India would increase the commerce beyond its present ton- 
nage capacity. The Cape route would be utterly abandoned as a route to 
India. Various systems of Railways, extending from various sea-ports on 
the east end of the Mediterranean Sea to India by way of Palestine, are 
contemplated. India and China require a constant increase of commercial 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 293 

facilities with the West in order to supply the mutually increasing de- 
mands. Let us now turn to Spain, France, and England, as those coun- 
tries identified with the Tarshish of the past and future. The ancient 
Phoenicians extended their commerce as far as England, This will scarce- 
ly be questioned ; for England had the greatest tin mines. The ships of 
Tarshish traded as far north, therefore, as England. Tarshish is not now 
the name of those countries of western Europe, nor of any other country ; 
but Ezekiel could not give them any other name than that by which they 
were then known ; the name known in prophetic history. England, 
France, and Spain would still be called in prophecy by that ancient pro- 
phetic name, Tarshish. The prophecy contains an explanatory clause: 
" With all the young lions thereof (of Tarshish). The expression is this 
— "the merchants of Tarshish, with the young lions of Tarshish." As- 
suming, what we have proved, that England was the ancient Tarshish, 
and that Great Britain is the Tarshish of Eze. xxxviii. 13, or the chief of 
both the ancient and the future Tarshish, Who are " her young lions T* 
Tarshish of Ezekiel xxxviii. 13, has young lions. This is what Ezekiel 
says only in another form of expression — " with the young lions thereof" 
Tarshish had her " merchants," and her " young lions," her merchants and 
young colonies. The Tarshish, or England, has some 60 colonies, of which 
the East Indies is by far the most populous, though young. Who has not 
heard the roar of the British Lion ? Turn for a moment to the royal 
standard of Great Britain. The Coat of Arms affixed to every document 
proceeding from the supreme authorities of every British possession — an 
emblem commanding and obtaining respect from every British subject, 
and which^ displayed upon the breasts of her kings, has struck terror and 
dismay to her enemies on the battlefield. The Coat of Arms, when ana- 
lyzed, gives, among others, the following results : On the first quarter are 
three Lions, on the second the Scotch Lion ; on the fourth quarter, three 
lions ; above all a crowned Lion ; then a Lion and a Unicorn j in all nine 
lions. The British East India Company is an incorporation of merchants, 
knowing no other than commercial interests. British (or Tarshish) mer- 
chants, belonging to India, a young colony. In the quarters of their shield 
there are young lions rampant, with this motto, "Auspicio Senatus An- 
glise." The British empire in the East is very distinctly seen in the above 
symbol. It is an integral part of the British empire ; and here addresses 
Gog as the Plenipotentiary of the British empire, or King of the South. 
These, with merchant princes of Arabia, powerful at that time, constitute 
a commission that seem to be appointed to bring Gog to an explanation of 
the object of his invasion of the land of Israel. I shall not pretend to as- 
certain the chronology of this interview between Gog and this commission 
of merchant princes of Tarshish, or the British empire. We are safe, how- 
ever, in saying, (1) that it is an event yet future, since it is after the return 
and union of Israel and Judah ; (2) the commerce of the southern con- 
federacy of nations, of which the British empire is chief, will be vastly in 
advance of its present proportions as appears from the advanced positions 
of " Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with the young lions 



294 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

thereof." " Shall say unto thee " (Gog — W). Being commissioned they 
have an interview with Gog, the chief of the invading army, to bring him 
to declare the object of his visit. 

Their interrogatory follows : "Art thou come to take a spoil ? hast 
thou gathered thy company to take a prey ? to carry away silver and gold, 
to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil ? They ask him if 
he has come as a robber of this wealthy, yet apparently defenseless people? 
The articles about which they question Gog are those which, probably, 
they had furnished Israel and Judah. They feel a personal interest in 
those articles and desire to know their fate. The Hebrew nation is com- 
posed principally of commission merchants and agriculturists; as they 
have gold and silver, cattle and goods. Such as would abound with men 
in those pursuits. 

Vs. 14. " Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog. Thus 
saith the Lord God ; in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, 
shalt thou not know (it) ?" The expression, " Shalt thou not know," is 
peculiar, it being not only an emphatic afl&rmation, but it conveys the idea 
that Gog will have spies among Israel for the purpose of facilitating his 
intended and premeditated robbery. This is an advanced epoch in Rus- 
sian history. She has in carrying out the instructions in the will of Peter 
the Great, " To have the Russian nation constantly at war," incurred im- 
mense war debts ; and knowing that Israel has a vast amount of gold and 
silver, and cattle and goods, necessary to supply his army, and that he 
could rob them without a battle, resolves to do so. 

Vs. 15. "And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, 
thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great 
company, and a mighty army." 

" Thou shalt come." It is said in vs. 16, " I (God) will bring thee." 
Gog has one motive (plunder) and seems to act freely as any other robber. 
God has another object, and brings Gog against His people as a lesson 
for the heathen. 

" From thy place out of the north parts." God had given him a field 
to cultivate. While in that field he was in his own field as God's tenant. 
There he had been held for many centuries. Whenever he attempted to 
leave that field Jehovah drew him back, signifying by the act that his pre- 
paratory mission was at home. 

" Out of the north parts." In the great shepherd or nomadic zone ; 
north of the imperial zone; the north of Asia and northeast of Europe; 
Siberia, and ancient Sarmatia and Scythia; the land occupied by those of 
all races that wandered away from civilization into the wilds of the cold 
north. 

" Many people with thee." Sub-tenants of all Shemitic and Japhetic 
families. The sons of Japheth all took up their abode in the north quar- 
ters that they might have abundance of room for pasturage. 

"All of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty 
army." Vastly more numerous than those armies that, from the snows 
and ice of the great bear circle, swept over the imperial belt. The immense 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 295 

plains of the north, the original home of that noble animal, the horse. 
The army, being composed entirely of cavalry, shows its origin, out of 
the Russian empire, the proper representatives of Peter the Great, on his 
fiery steed. 

Vs. 16. "And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a 
cloud to cover the land ; it shall be in the latter days and I will bring thee 
against my land, that the heathen may know me when I shall be sanctified 
in thee Gog, before their eyes." '' Thou shalt come against my people of 
Israel." " I will bring thee against my land." These are expressions full 
of significance. Gog cares nothing about the land, since he has not come 
to stay (they being horsemen), but to rob. They are after Israel's gold and 
silver, cattle and goods, not for their mountains. They can carry away 
Israel's gold, silver, and goods; they can drive away their cattle. They are 
after the honey, not the hive, nor the bees. God is after Gog and his hosts, 
and, therefore, brings them on to the mountains of Israel, the foot of His 
throne. God has a controversy with him ; and when the Almighty takes 
the field against an enemy their case is without a single ray of hope to 
cheer them in their unequal contest ; worms of the dust ; beings, whose 
breath is in their nostrils, contending against the God of the universe ! 

" It shall be in the latter days." The time when this invasion is to 
take place is here stated,— "In the latter days." This expression clearly 
implies that there would be many years, even a succession of years, between 
the publication of the prediction and its accomplishment. It is therefore 
supposed, with much probability, that its fulfillment will be posterior to the 
conversion of the Jews and their restoration to their own land." — Bagster. 
It is God that is here speaking, and who says that it (the invasion shall be 
in the latter days. It must be after the days of the scattering of Israel, 
and Judah have finally closed. Judah's long captivity did not commence 
till A. D. 71, and up to that time Israel, or the ten tribes, were still scat- 
tered, as appears from the Epistle of James: — "James, a servant of God 
and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered 
abroad." Jas. i. 1. The invasion was at the time when Judah and Israel 
are dwelling safely in their own land. And that this invasion might not 
be mistaken for any past or near event, it is added, ''It shall be in the 
latter days." "What thought was conveyed to the mind of Ezekiel by this 
expression ? It, being explanatory, was understood by the seer as referring 
to a time quite remote. In the Hebrew for ' latter days '— D^D\'l nnflN^ 
Ha-ya-mim, a-cha-rith. The word a-cha-rith, translated latter, is defined 
as follows : The extremity, end, latter end, last time ; carrying the idea of 
distant time, aud the extreme of that time. In Ps. cxxxix. 9. it is translated 
" utter-most parts." In Deut. xi. 12. it is rendered " end," " The eyes of the 
Lord thy God (are always upon it, the land). From the beginning of the 
year even unto the end of it." In Nu. xxiii. 10. it is rendered last end. In 
Ps. xxxvii. 37. it is rendered end. The idea is found in Nu. xxiv. 14. Deut. 
iv. 30., and xxxi. 29. The united twelve tribes will have two distinct 
periods of nationalit}^, a former and a latter. The former under David and 
Solomon ; the latter under David's greater son, the Messiah. Under the 



296 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

official reign of the latter we place this invasion. Some time during that 
reign two efforts are made : the first not long after the return and union of 
Judah and Israel ; the other at the close of Messiah's ofiicial reign. The 
former is described in Rev. xix., the latter in Rev. xx. Zechariah also 
speaks of the two. 

Vs. 17. "Thus saith the Lord God : (Art) thou He of whom I have 
spoken in the old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which 
prophesied in those days (many) years that I would bring thee against 
them ?" It would seem from what is here stated that Gog had had a former 
existence as well as Israel ; and this is the latter period of His life also. If 
so, by what name was He known, where and by what prophets was He 
described ? Zechariah had a vision that will help us in solving these difli- 
cult problems. To this vision let us turn. "Then I lifted up mine eyes, 
and saw, and beheld four horns. And I said unto the angel (Gabriel, the 
interpreting angel,) that talked with me: What (be) these? And he 
answered me: These (are) the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel 
and Jerusalem." The four great Gentile monarchies have all had a hand in 
that work. Assyria was the first, and Rome was the last. And the Lord 
showed me four carpenters, or smiths. Then said I, What come these to do ? 
And he spake, saying. These (are) the horns which have scattered Judah, 
so that no man did lift up his head : but these are come to fray them, to cast 
out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up (their) horns over the land 
of Judah to scatter it." Zech. i. 18-21. These four smiths symbolize the 
power used by Jehovah against the destroyers of his people, angelic angels 
working against hostile nations (see Dan. x. 13. 20). The last three chap- 
ters of Zechariah describe two invasions of the land of Israel by the confeder- 
ated nations of the North : the first is while Judah is returning, but immedi- 
ately anterior to his conversion ; the other is at the close of the reign of 
subjugation, and is the one so graphically delineated by Ezekiel. These 
invasions will be more fully set forth under the Hebrew Phase of the 
Eastern Question. 

What, then, did the prophets call Gog during his former years, when 
he persecuted the children of Israel ? We answer, that he was called the 
"Assyrian," in the same sense in which John the Baptist was called Elijah : 
he came in the spirit and power of the Assyrian, as John the Baptist 
appeared in the spirit and power of Elijah (Lu. i. 17). The Assyrian was 
the first great oppressor of the Jewish nation. He lives again in Gog, the 
great oppressor of God's people. Examine the term Assyrian, as used by 
Isaiah and some other early prophets. Assyria, the first Gentile horn, is a 
wicked persecutor of God's people. Russia partakes of the same spirit and 
power. Some name common to both, and to all Gentile persecutors, should 
be used. Gog is such a name. We have had in past ages an Assyrian Gog, 
a Persian Gog, a Grecian, a Roman, a Mohammedan Gog, and finally, the 
Russian Gog. As this persecuting power will appear in our notice of 
other phases, we will dismiss the Gog of former years, and progress with our 
history of the Russian Gog of the " latter days." 

Vs. 18. "And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 297 

come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God: (that) my fury shall 
come up in my face." "My fury shall come up in my face." The provoca- 
tion of Jehovah had been exceedingly severe. Under assumed names of 
four universal Gentile nationalities he had hunted down and devoured those 
whom he knew to be God's covenanted people. And, aware that God had 
banished Israel and Judah from their own soil, from their hearths, and 
their dear native mountains, as a temporary chastisement, to be followed in 
due time by a restitution to their land and nationality : added persecution to 
said chastisement asif they had a full right to punish another one's servants. 
When God thought proper to chastise His disobedient children with whips 
the national usurpers took the liberty of chastising with scorpions. God 
regarded banishment from their homes, and the loss of nationality, and re- 
ligious principles, sufficient punishment; yet Gog, disguised under, and 
assuming the names of Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, and, lastly, 
Russian, has followed, with deadly hate, Israel and Judah through all lands, 
and in all ages, since their dispersion, sent them as paupers to their own 
land ; and now that they are prospered, and live quietly under Jehovah's 
smiles, in their own land, he has come to rob them, as if they had no pro- 
tector. What parent would not resent such base affrontery ? 

Vs. 19. " For in my jealousy, (and) in the fire of my wrath have I 
spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of 
Israel ;" so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of heaven, and the beasts 
of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the 
men that(are)upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence " (vs.20). 

" In jealousy, (and) in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. God's 
utterance should claim our special notice. "Gog," Messiah's great enemy, 
and ancient persecutor of His people, having collected the hosts of 
the Arctic, rushing onward, spreads the storm-mantle over the skies of 
Israel. The contest is truly for universal dominion. The " stone " and 
the " image " are about to- collide. Which shall fill the earth ? God is 
jealous for His own name, and for the honor of His Son. His wrath 
burns like a consuming fire as this ancient criminal, with his army of 
mounted warriors, draws near to the foot of His throne. In the fire 
of His jealous anger the Almighty utters His voice. " The Lord shall 
"roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens 
and the earth shall shake." Joel iii. 16. That this throne, before which 
Jehovah has summoned Gog, with his robber hosts, is His throne of 
executive judgment, is made clear, by the narration of the prophet Joel, 
" For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the 
captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and I 
will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with 
them there for my people, and (for) my heritage, Israel, whom they have 
scattered among the nations, and parted my land." Joel iii. 1. 2. Then 
follows the sketch of that treatment, which was well calculated to excite 
God's jealous indignation. Vss. 3-9. "And they have cast lots for my 
people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they 
might drink. ^ ^ ^ ys. 5. Because ye have taken my silver and my 



298 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. The 
children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the 
Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their borders. Behold, I 
will raise them out of the place whither )"e have sold them, and will return 
your recompense upon your own head. And I will sell your sons and 
your daughters into the hand of the children of Juda, and they shall sell 
them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken (it)" 
Whenever God thought proper to chastise His covenant people for diso- 
bedience and idolatry, and saw proper to use any Gentile nation as the rod 
of chastisement, that people showed its low depravity by adding seven-fold 
to the punishment, rather than to manifest human sympathy. This course 
was taken, in turn, by all the great Gentile monarchies. They exulted 
with jealous hate when God and His people had any difficulty : since God 
had constituted the Hebrew family the hub of the world, arranging all 
other families and nationalities as spokes or part of the rim. Deut. xxxii. 8. 
By so doing they exhibited a desire to question the right of Jehovah to gov- 
ern the nations. The proof which we designed to advance begins with vs. 
9. *' Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles : Prepare war, wake up the 
mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat 
your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let 
the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, 
and gather yourselves together round about : thither cause thy mighty ones 
to come down, Lord. Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the val- 
ley of Jehosaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. 
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; come, get ye down : For the press 
is full; the vats overflow ; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, mul- 
titudes in the valley of decision : For the day of the Lord is near in the 
valley of decision, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars 
shall withdraw their shining : The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and 
utter His voice out of Jerusalem ; and the heavens and the earth shall 
shake. Vs. 9-16. 

V. 2L " And I will call for a sword against him" throughout all my 
mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's sword shall be against his 
brother." Composed of so many tribal nations, without any element of 
union existing, and held together by the iron will of their despotic chief, 
and a thirst for plunder as soon as they see their chances of success are di- 
minishing and that they are about to contend with the natural elements, 
they turn their swords against each other as the cause of their impending 
calamities. 

V. 22. " And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood ; 
and I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people 
that (are) with him, an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brim- 
stone." " With pestilence and with blood." Crowded into the narrow 
passes the pestilence broke out, the mountain steeps falling crushed their 
thousanOri, the roar of the tempest, the flashes of lightning, the concussion 
of the heavens by peals of thunder following in quick succession, the com- 
mingling of hailstones, fire and brimstone, took from Gog and his fright- 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 299 

ened expiring hosts, the last ray of desolated hopes and covetuous expecta- 
tions. 

V. 23. " Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself; and I will 
be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the 
Lord." " Magnify," '' sanctify " and " known." It seems that the heathen 
understood Jehovah to be the author of the pestilence, the earthquake and 
the storm, and, therefore, magnified His name. They knew that these great 
judgments were executed for the intended robbery of a pure and holy people, 
and, consequently, it gave God the character of holy as well as a great Being. 
It also taught them the lesson that the punisher of Israel and Judah was the 
Lord Almighty of the nations near and more distant. Eze. xxxix., 1-8. — 
" Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, thus saith the 
Lord God ; behold I (am) against thee, 0, Gog, the prince of Meshech and 
Tubal, and I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee, and 
will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring upon thee 
the mountains of Israel; and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, 
and will cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall 
upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that 
(are — W.) with thee. I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort and 
(to) the beasts of the field to be devoured. The)' shalt fall upon the open 
field, for I have spoken (it) saith the Lord God ; and I will send a fire on 
Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles, and they shall 
know that I (am) the Lord. So will I make my holy name known in the 
midst of my people, Israel, and I will not (let them) pollute my holy name 
any more ; and the heathen shall know that I (am) the Lord, the Holy One 
of Israel." 

This paragraph contains a message from Jehovah to Ezekiel for Gog, 
informing Him of his disposition towards him and of what He designs to in- 
flict upon him. Some expressions will be better understood if explained. 
*'Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." God has taken great pains 
to identify this illustrious chief of the "latter days." Meshech, a son of Ja- 
pheth, from whom the Moschi, (Muscai, Muscovites) who occupied a mount- 
ain called Moschici Montes, a mountain chain joining Anti-Taurus and 
Caucasus, bordering upon Colchis, Iberia (in Asia) and Armenia, who in 
later times peopled Russia about the territory of Muscovy, of which the Em- 
peror of Russia is now the chief prince. Their ancient character is learned; 
from Eze., xxvi. 13, Ps., cxx. 5. They supplied the Tyrians copper from 
their mountains and slaves, such as were taken in battle. They are suffi- 
ciently identified as a part of the Russian empire. Tubal, a son of Japheth, 
his family settled in Iberia, between the Black and Caspian seas. "The 
Moschi and Tibareni were associated under the name of Miskai and Tup- 
lai, in the Assyrian inscriptions." — Dr. Wm. Smith. 

" I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee," of thy peo- 
ple. This has various interpretations : " I will strike thee with six plagues, 
or draw thee back with a hook of six teeth ;" I will draw thee back. " To 
deceive thee I will turn thee and lead thee about." We have examined the 
Hebrew text with the following; results: 



300 THE EASTERN QUESTION 

♦'^'Nn&r* n.T'^ir.^^niNani \m 'n^yj^ ^^n^'?^n'! "^'nmm ^^^n^^tJ^l 

— We-sho-vav-ti-ka we-shi-shai-ti-ka we-ha-al-ti-ka me-yar-ki-thai tza-phon, 
I will break thee in pieces, I will divide thee into six parts, I will cause 
thee to ascend from the sides of the north ; wa-ha-ve-o-thi-ka al ha-rai yis- 
ra-eil, and will cause thee to come on to the mountains of Israel." Such ap- 
pears to be the full import of v. 2. We infer from these words Gog's total 
overthrow: " I will send a fire on Magog." Some terrible judgment will de- 
stroy the countries whence the armies of Gog were led forth about the time 
the armies themselves were cut off. The depletion of those grass plains, 
over the immense Siberian wilds by such armies of horsemen, would allow 
the grass to be left so dense that, fire catching the deadened fields, would 
consume the whole country. Nothing would be there to resist its sea of 
fiery billows. Jeremiah says : " Set up a standard toward Zion ; retire, stay 
not, for I will bring evil from the north and great destruction." — Jer. iv. 6. 
" Behold, a people cometh from the north country and a great nation shall 
be raised from the sides of the earth." — Jer. vi. 22. " Behold, the noise of 
the bruit is come and a great commotion out of the north country to make 
the cities of Judah desolate (and) a den of dragon." — Jer. x. 22. In the 
north of Asia is the den of the dragonic world, one division of Gog's (Sa- 
tan's) triple empire. Rev. xxvi. 13. — " For, lo, I will raise and cause to 
come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north 
country, and they shall set themselves in array against her." — Jer. 1. 9. " Be- 
hold, a people shall ^come from the north and a great nation and many 
kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the 
bow and the lance. They (are) cruel and will not show mercy. Their voice 
shall roar like the sea and they shall ride upon horses." — Vs. 41-42. " Then 
the heaven and the earth and all that (is) therein shall sing for Babylon, 
for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the Lord." — Jer. 
li. 48. "I have raised up (one) from the north (Medes) and he (Cyrus) 
shall come from the rising of the sun (East Persia) shall he call upon my 
name. (Read the history of Cyrus. — W.) And he shall come upon princes 
as (upon) mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay." — Is. xli. 25. The Assyr- 
ian is said to come from the north against Israel, then Judah, and the Medes 
and Persians against Babylon because she oppressed Judah and Jerusalem. 
The Medes and Persians were overthrown for their oppression of the same 
people. After that the Grecians and the Romans, and finally the Russians. 
All these nations drink of the same cup, and justly, since they in their 
pride and selfishness ill-treated God's chosen people. Since all these na- 
tions partook of the same spirit of the great oppressor of God's ancient peo- 
ple, and used that power to oppress said nation, they all deserve to be called 
by a name that will fully designate their common characteristics. Now Gog 
is such a name, since its etymological meaning expresses those common 
types of character. A Hebrew lexicon thus defines JliJ] — gog, " lofty, proud, 
haughty, insolent, undaunted, oppressive. The same author thus defines 
JlilD — ma-gog, the son of Japheth, of whom ail Europe was peopled (origi- 
nally peopled — W.). Japheth went north and west, his sons being with him 



EUSSIAN PHASE. 301 

or in his division of the globe. They at first occupied the head waters of 
the Euphrates, as they would naturally wander up that valley till they met 
with a mountain obstruction extending from the Caspian sea west, north- 
west to the Black sea, about 750 miles. Here, on the slopes of these spurs 
and along their valleys, the soil warm and fertile, they pastured their flocks 
and herds. This mountain range took the name of Caucasus. As their 
numbers increased they spread east and west, till finally they passed the 
three ridges. The western passage being toward the Black sea, between the 
sources of the Kuban and the Terek. The eastern pass being near the Cas- 
pian sea, called the pass of Derbend. Many families in the course of years 
emigrated northward into Europe, while others wandered to the northeast 
and occupied Northern Asia. Thus spread or enlarged the Japhetic fami- 
lies. Shemitic tribes also wandered up the same Euphratean valley, and, 
meeting with the same lofty obstructions (from 8,000 feet to 18,000 feet) 
they settled among the families of Japheth. The result has been a greater 
variety of tribes than in any other part of the world, there being not less 
than one hundred different languages spoken. If we may be allowed the ex- 
pression we shall call these southern slopes the ancient Japhetic hive, from 
which came forth the ancient swarms that settled down on Northern Eu- 
rope and Asia, now occupied by the empire of Gog, or Russia, and consti- 
tuting the empire in early times, the land of Magog, so named from the sec- 
ond son of Japheth. A single glance at an anciant map will reveal the 
strong probability of the truth of such a view. After the confusion of Babel 
the families of the three sons of Noah were scattered. Ham's posterity moved 
towards Africa, Japheth's family moving in the direction of Europe, passed 
up the valley of the Euphrates, while the family of Shem concluded to 
keep the original homestead in Asia, since from that family was to spring 
the Hebrew race, God's peculiar people. It appears then, from what we 
have stated, that Europe and Northern Asia were first occupied by the sons 
of Japheth, and that later in the world's history great tides of emigration 
rolled westward from families proceeding from more eastern Asiatic centres, 
peopled by the families of Shem. Gog was the Pharaoh, the Csesar of the 
great North, and as the original hive was located along the southern slopes 
of a vast mountain range, that range would be called by the name of their 
despotic successive chiefs, Caucasus, fortress of Gog. We have enlarged on 
the subject of the original settlement of northeastern Europe and northwest- 
ern Asia, that the reader may have a distinct understanding of the Russian 
Empire in all its parts. 

Vs. 8. " Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God, this (is) 
the day whereof I have spoken." Jehovah, knowing the future equally 
with the past, having unlimited power over it, says : It is done, though 
then distant not less than 24 centuries. He is in the scenes and they 
are accomplished. 

Vss. 9, 10. "And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth 
and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, 
the bows and the arrows, and the hand-staves, and the spears, and they 
shall burn them with fire seven years. So that they shall take no wood out 



302 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of the field, neither cut down (any) out of the forests ; for they shall burn 
the weapons with fire ; and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and 
rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord." " Set on fire and burn," 
From this language it would seem that Gog's army will be overthrown by 
a miraculous judgment, without a battle, as were the forces of Sennacherib, 
which may have been a type. The " hand-staves " were clubs. " Burn 
them with fire seven years." This act has been made, by infidels, the sub- 
ject of much ridicule., 

Bishop Lowth thus renders Is. ix. 5. " For the greaves (leg-armor) of 
the armed warrior in the conflict, and the garment rolled in much blood, 
shall be for a burning, even fuel for the fire." This learned critic mentions 
that '' a medal, struck by Vespasian, on finishing his war, represents the 
goddess Peace, holding an olive-branch in one hand, and, with a lighted 
torch in the other, setting fire to a heap of armor." " When the immense 
number and destruction of the invaders are considered, and also the little 
fuel, comparatively, which is necessary in warm climates, we may easily 
conceive of this being literally fulfilled. Mariana, in his History of Spain, 
says that after the Spaniards had given that signal overthrow to the Sara- 
cens, A. D. 1212, they found such a vast quantity of lances, javelins, and 
such like, as served them for four years for fuel." — Bagster. 

Vs. 11. "And it shall come to pass in that day (that) I will give unto 
Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the 
east of the sea ; and it shall stop the (noses) of the passengers ; and there 
shall they bury Gog and all his multitude ; and they shall call (it) The 
Valley of Hamon-gog (the multitude of Gog). And seven months shall 
the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land. Yea, 
all the people of the land shall bury (them), and it shall be to them a re- 
nown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God. And they shall 
sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury 
with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth (land — 
W.) to cleanse it ; after the end of seven months shall they search. And 
the passengers (that) pass through the land, when (any) seeth a man's 
bone then shall he set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the 
valley of Hamon-gog. And also the name of the city (shall be) Hamonah. 
Thus shall they cleanse the land." "Hamonah " — the multitude ; one of 
the silent cities. 

Vss. 17-21. "And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord God ; speak 
unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field. Assemble your- 
selves and come ; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do 
sacrifice for you, (even) a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that 
ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Y.e shall eat the flesh of the mighty, 
and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of 
goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye (fowls and 
beasts) shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of 
my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my 
table, with horses and chariots (charioteers — W.) with mighty men, and 
with all men of war, saith the Lord God." 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 303 

Table of God, the field covered with the slain, the field of the slaugh- 
ter of Gog of the land of Magog. Voltaire said that the Jews ate the flesh 
of horses, and of men. The guests at this, the Lord's table, are not Jews, 
but fowls and beasts. Such the construction requires. 

Vss. 21-25. "And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the 
heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I 
have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I (am) the 
Lord their God, from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know 
that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they 
trespassed against me, therefore, hid I my face from them, and gave them 
into the hands of their enemies ; so fell they all by the sword. According 
to their uncleanness, and according to their transgressions, have I done 
unto them, and hid my face from them." 

This prophetic history of the great conflict and overthrow of Gog and 
his forces on the mountains of Israel, closes with a brief statement of its 
effects on Israel and the heathen. The heathen learned the reason of God's 
chastisement of His own people, not to give them servants, but because of 
their transgressions against Jehovah ; and that Gog was overthrown for his 
attempted robbery of a people that were then dwelling at ease under the 
Divine favor. It now remains to identify the era of these events in Rus- 
sian prophetic history. Are they at the beginning of the reign of subju- 
gation, or near its conclusion, when the joint reign is about to commence? 
These questions may be answered by other prophets, who utter their pre- 
dictions from points of observation quite in advance of that of Ezekiel, 
viz., Zechariah and St. John in his Apocalypse. These prophets describe 
two remarkable periods of conflict. One immediately before the conver- 
sion and full restoration of Judah and Israel ; the other near the close of , 
the reign of subjugation. This fact led us to look for the two in Ezekiel's 
predictions, with the following results : (1) In chapter xxxv. is God's 
judgment on Mount Seir (Edom), which looks to the future and includes 
all the heathen that have held the land of Israel or oppressed God's ancient 
people; (2) Ezekiel xxxvi. contains a prediction concerning the restora- 
tion of the land itself to its fertility; (3) Chapter xxxvii. contains the 
resurrection of the whole house of Israel ; their union and occupancy of 
their ancient restored land ; (4) Chapters xxxviii. and xxxix. describe the 
final invasion and overthrow of Gog ; (5) Chapters xl. to xlviii. represent 
the new order of things. These points will appear in many particulars 
more fully developed in Zech. xii., xiii. and xiv.; and in Rev. xix., xx. and 
xxi. These we shall examine as far as they relate to the heathen. These 
chapters of Zechariah and of the Apocalypse refer especially to the people 
of God as elements of the stone kingdom, and will come under special 
notice when treating of the "Hebrew Phase of the Eastern Question." 
We shall notice the two invasions, by the heathen, of the land of Israel, 
and by them of two sieges of Jerusalem ; the one introductory to Christ's 
official reign ; the other near its conclusion, covering the last act of human 
and Satanic rebellion. These two sieges of Jerusalem, both in the future, 
claim our present notice, so far as we can trace Russian agency. We shall 



304 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

begin with the first cycle of events connected with the first heathen in- 
vasion and siege of Jerusalem, and which answers to the events of Eze- 
kiel's XXX vth chapter. Our first sketch of prophetic history will be taken 
from Zech. xii., compared with Rev. xix. 19-21. Let us now follow the in- 
spired records and compare with national movements. 

Zech. xii. 2. " Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto 
all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege, both against 
Judah (and) against Jerusalem." "A cup of trembling." The word here 
translated cup is ilp — saph, from tl^D — sa-paph. He became doorkeeper, 

porter, sexton. Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. Saph is a noun, masculine, singular, and 
is a threshold, post of a door. Eze. xl. 6, and Jud. xix. 27; masculine, 
plural. Is. vi. 4. Amos ix. 1. Cup should be threshold. I make Jerusalem 
for a threshold of shaking to all nations round about. The idea seems to 
be this, as Jerusalem, the threshold of all the invading powers, shakes in 
the siege, she conveys the shaking to the invading nations ; when the 
threshold of a building shakes, the trembling is imparted to the whole 
building. So when Jerusalem shakes in the siege, her shaking is imparted 
first to the invading nations; then to those more distant. "And also upon 
Judah will it (the shaking) be." It will concern Judah also when Jerusa- 
lem is besieged ; Judah will be outside of Jerusalem, and, therefore, more 
exposed to the attacks of the enemy. 

It is well, here, to consider the object of this invasion. Let it be 
distinctly understood that the motives that actuate the nations in the 
two invasions are unlike. (1) The first invasion (the one we are now 
sketching) is for Position. (2) The second invasion of Gog (as clearly 
stated) is for Plunder. Palestine, or the land of Israel, whose capital is 
Jerusalem, at that time, is a coveted locality, it being on the highway be- 
tween the West and the East. The imperial and nomadic zones, with 
England and Russia at the head of these southern and northern confedera- 
cies, are striving to control the eastern commerce. The nation, therefore, 
that controls Palestine will be the chief in the commerce of India and 
China. The Hebrews, at this time, are living in colonies through the 
land, while Jerusalem has risen to a considerable degree of note. They are 
still unconverted when this invasion for position takes place. The loca- 
tion has been for years under the British Protectorate ; but the northern 
power has gradually advanced towards the south till the judgments of 
Jehovah are now about to commence. And the invasion now takes place 
by way of India and Persia. This land is, at the time of this invasion, 
occupied by parts of Judah and Israel, in an unconverted state. Their 
chastisement is terminated, and Jehovah extends protection. No person, 
in manner conversant with eastern afiairs, can fail to discern the prepara- 
tory movements of that first invasion. The result of that invasion is a 
matter of the prophetic history which we are now tracing. These eastern 
and northern hordes are permitted to enter Palestine and besiege Jerusa- 
lem. Let us again take up the narration of Zechariah. 

V. 3. " And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone 



RUSSIAN PHASE 305 

for all people ; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces 
though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." 

Some of the results of this invasion are here clearly delineated. The 
Hebrew text justifies the following translation: "And it shall come to 
pass the same day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all 
the nations ; all who lift it up shall bruise and cut themselves, and there 
shall be gathered together against her all the nations of the earth." Two 
facts are here stated : (1.) All the nations of the earth are gathered against 
Jerusalem. (2.) All who lift her up shall bruise and cut themselves ; as if 
God should say : Touch not my people nor my holy city lest ye be bruised 
and cut to pieces. Jerusalem is compared to a heavy stone, which inflicts 
dislocations and bruises upon those who, overrating their strength, raises it 
up, they not expecting any harm, sufier severely." It is very evident that 
in this siege God, through Judah and Jerusalem, fights against the invad- 
ing nations. 

V. 4. " In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite all horses with fright 
and their riders (northern cavalry) with madness, and upon the house of 
Judah will I open my eyes, and all horses of the nations will I smite with 
blindness." This is illustrated in II. Kings, vi. 18: " And when they (the 
enemy) came down to him Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee 
smite this people with blindness, and He smote them with blindness, ac- 
cording to the word of Elisha." God's punishment of His people is illus- 
trated by closing His eyes. His favor by opening His eyes. House of Ju- 
dah includes all His covenant people. 

V. 5. " And the princes of Judah say in their hearts, strong for me 
are the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord, the Almighty, their God." 
Judah pitched his tents in the country, looks only for help from Jerusalem, 
strong for me. Jerusalem will aid and defend me. 

V. 6. " In that day will I make the princes of Judah as a fire from 
under wood and as a torch of fire under sheaves, and they shall devour on 
the right hand and on the left, all the nations round about, and Jerusalem 
continues to sit on her throne at Jerusalem." From this it seems that Ju- 
dah, by Jehovah's aid, gains a complete victory over the nations outside of 
Jerusalem, and by this great victory delivers Jerusalem, which is the im- 
port of the expression ''Jerusalem continues to sit on her throne at Jerusa- 
lem." (See Babylon's fate. Is. xlvii. i.) Sit in the dust. 

V. 7. " And the Lord will help the tents of Judah first, in order that 
the splendor of the house of David and the splendor of the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem may not exalt itself above Judah." Judah was in the country; 
no walls to defend him, in a state of helplessness. For two reasons, there- 
fore, his utter helplessness and that the house of David and the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem might not eclipse and thereby discourage Judah, God first 
helps Judah so that all could see that the victory was from God. 

V. 8. " In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
and he that stumbleth among them in that day shall be as David and the 
house of David like God, as the angel of the Lord before them." The inhab- 
itants of Jerusalem are divided into two classes, the weak and the strong. 
20 



306 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The weak shall be stronger than David in the days of the former theocracy, 
and the house of David like God, as the angel of the Lord among the hosts 
of Assyrians. " And their king shall pass before them and the Lord on the 
head of them." — Mic. ii. 13. 

Of this first invasion of Palestine and siege of Jerusalem, we have from 
Zech., xii. 2-9, the following particulars : (1.) Jerusalem, though besieged, 
will shake all the nations that come against her. (2.) Jerusalem will be a 
burdensome stone to all nations, bruising and cutting all that lift her up or 
attempt to handle her. (3.) This invasion is very extensive. " And there 
shall be gathered together against her all the nations of the earth." — V. 3, 
(4.) God will smite the horses with fright and blindness, and their riders 
with madness. (5.) God will first give Judah the victory, as the weaker 
and the more exposed, his tents being outside of Jerusalem, his army being 
composed of men from the colonies (un walled villages.) (6.) Jehovah does 
not intimate, as at the second invasion, that the nations are brought by 
Him to the foot of His throne for judgment, as in the second invasion, but 
He says: "In that day I will seek to destroy all nations that come against 
Jerusalem." — V. 9. In the first invasion the nations are contending for po- 
sition, knowing its great local value in the commercial world. It is not 
here stated that the nations are in one army or that they have but one great 
chief. There are intimations to the contrary. " All nations round about," 
intimating various efforts by various nationalities. " All that lift her up 
or attempt it shall bruise and cut themselves," — v. 3, clearly intimating 
that there would be many distinct and independent efforts by the rival na- 
tions to gain the position of Palestine. God, designing it for Judah and Is- 
rael and their companions, will fight against all nations that attempt to 
thwart His purpose. There is a remarkable distinction in the inspired lan- 
guage used to describe the objects and nature of the first and second inva- 
sions. It is very clear that robbery and plunder are not the motives for the 
first invasion and siege, and if not, what other national motive would cause 
such a universal gathering to the land of Israel, except to gain position and 
power? That there are two invasions and sieges, the one at the beginning 
of the reign of Subjugation, the other near its close, will appear by compar- 
ing certain features in each of the prophetic records as given in Zech. xii. 
2-9, and Zech. xiv. with Rev. xix. 

(1.) In the first siege Jerusalem is not taken, in the second siege the 
city is taken. (2.) In the first invasion Judah fights outside of Jerusalem, 
in the second Judah fights in the city. (3.) The events that follow each are 
quite unlike. The first victory is followed by mourning and conversion of 
Judah and Jerusalem. They must have been, therefore, at the time of the 
first invasion, unconverted, but first see Christ in that contest, become con- 
vinced of His true character, and commence to mourn. Such events by no 
means follow the second siege. (Read Zech. xiv.) These points will be 
fully investigated under the " Hebrew Phase of the Eastern Question." Hav- 
ing examined Zechariah's record of this first invasion and siege of Jerusa- 
lem, let us turn to the Apocalypse. Rev. xix. 19-21 — " And I saw the beast 
and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 307 

against him that sat on the horse (vs. 11-18) and against his army, and the 
beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles be- 
fore him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the 
beast and them that had worshiped his image. These both were cast alive 
into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant were slain 
with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which (sword) proceeded 
out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." Many ex- 
pressions of the above quotation require investigation. This will be more 
fully discussed under the "Hebrew Phase." We shall here attend to the 
three divisions of Satan's imperial forces, headed by three distinguished 
powers : (1.) The beast, (2,) the false prophet, (3,) the kings of the earth, 
which, from other passages, especially Rev. xvi. 13, would cover the pagan 
world. 

(1.) The beast here spoken of is evidently the fourth beast of Daniel, 
known as the Roman, Latin, and at present the Romano-German empire, 
described in Rev. xii., xiii., and xvii. In that political system are included 
the western nations of Europe. (2.) Under that of the false prophet we 
reckon the Ottoman empire, which holds for its capital Constantinople, the 
capital of the old Greek empire. This will be explained under the " Otto- 
man Phase of the Eastern Question." At present we shall notice the third 
division, the kings of the earth and their armies. 

Under this division will be gathered all those nations not included in 
the other two military departments. Who are these nations and who is 
their chief to gather their armies? Take the western European nations and 
the Ottoman empire from the military powers of the Old World and the 
Russian empire alone remains with sufficient military power to invade the 
land of Israel, for neither Great Britain or Russia would allow either Japan or 
China to march against Palestine, since in so doing their armies would have 
to pass through Russian or British territory. One point is worthy of special 
note. In this first invasion, vs. 19-20, there are only two of the three mil- 
itary systems whose armies come against the land of Israel, viz.: (1.) The 
beast, (2,) the kings of the earth. These have armies that invade the land 
of Israel. In Rev. xvi. 13, there are three powers that gather to the great 
day of God Almighty. Why is the empire of the false prophet here left out ? 
He was then alive and in some manner associated with the beast, as we 
learn from v. 20. In the first invasion all the nations are enrolled under 
two standards, that of the beast and that of the kings of the earth. Gather- 
ing by way of Egypt the beast, or his army, comes into Palestine as the 
king of the south, and the Russian empire, with the kings of the earth en- 
rolled in his army, would come in from the north and east. Since this in- 
vasion is for position (to hold the land of Israel) the empire of the false 
prophet being already in possession (by usurpation) of that locality, would 
not appear to fight for the position, (since he holds it) but would be in- 
volved in the punishment at an old usurper. 

We have now shown clearly that there are to be two invasions of the 
land of Israel still in the future ; one for position, the other for robbery and 
plunder. Let the reador study Ezekiel, commencing at chap, xlviii., then 



308 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

read through the prophecies of Zechariah, beginning at chap. xii. After 
this read carefully Rev. xix. to xxxii. The order of events is the same in 
each. The conversion of Judah and Jerusalem follows the first invasion, 
and a most triumphant reign the second. Between these invasions is locat- 
ed the reign of Subjugation, which continues at least one thousand years. 
(See Rev. xx.) The armies of the nations are overthrown, then driven 
back during the 1,000 years of Satan's imprisonment. During this time 
Christ is officiating in His regal office. 

We have now completed our examination of the first invasion of Israel 
and siege of Jerusalem. We have also described the events of the second 
invasion, as narrated in Ezekiel, in chapters xxxviii. and xxxix.; it now 
remains that we present the testimony of Zechariah and John relative to 
this same second invasion of the land of Israel. In our remarks we propose 
to confine ourselves to the acts of the heathen, or Gog, reserving other re- 
marks for the future. We begin this supplementary narration with this 
distinct special thought, that this second invasion has two distinct phases, 
a human and a divine phase. Gog and his hosts go up the land of un- 
walled villages for robbery and plunder, acting out freely their own covet- 
ous nature. Jehovah brings them up to the foot of His throne for His last 
great national executive judgment. Zechariah xiv. i. Behold the day of 
the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. 
Better rendered, " A day comes to the Lord." All other days come rather to 
men, this belongs especially to Jehovah as His day for executing judgment 
on the house of God first, then upon Gog and his hosts (Eze. xxxix. 13). 
"A day in which God shall be glorified." 

Vs. 2. " For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle : I 
will collect all the heathen against Jerusalem to battle the Gentiles, not 
Judah and Israel : For they are there, living in peace and prosperty ; yet in 
Jerusalem are hypocrites which fact causes God's judgment to begin at the 
"house of God." As to this feature, we shall introduce it again under its 
proper head. This invasion is from Gog and his confederated nations — 
heathen idolaters. Their conduct in the sack of Jerusalem shows great 
corruption. God, Himself, gathers this multitude, *• I collect all the 
heathen." He gathers them to the judgment first upon Jerusalem, and 
then upon themselves. Eze. xxxix. 2. " The Lord brings Gog out of the 
extreme north, and conducts him to the mountains of Israel, there to de- 
stroy him." It will be seen that this second invasion is by Jehovah, and, 
consequently, for executive judgment. For centuries they had oppressed 
God's people — exiled from their own native soil. That exile had been 
doubled by Gentile cruelty. They are here brought to the land now occu- 
pied by their old servants, to be slain in their presence. How will God 
execute this judgment? Vs. 3. "And the Lord goes forth and fights 
those heathen, as in His day of conflict, in the day of battle." (See Is. xlii. 
13; Hab. iii. 13. Is. xxvi. 20. 21). 

The judgments executed on the heathen are as follows : "And this will 
be the plague wherewith the Lord will plague all nations which have warred 
against Jerusalem ; his flesh will rot while he stands on his feet, and his 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 309 

eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth." 
And so will be the plague of the horses, the mules, the camels, and the 
asses. "Which shall be in those camps as His plague." Vs. 15. Some of 
the heathen are converted. "And it comes to pass, all the remnant of all 
the heathen,, which come against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year 
to supplicate the King, Jehovah of hosts, to celebrate the feast of taber- 
nacles." Vs. 16, 

Such is the fate of the heathen in this second invasion. A full 
explanation of this last chapter of Zechariah belongs to the " Hebrew 
Phase." 

It now remains that we examine Gog and Magog, of the Apocalypse ; 
or Gog and his field, or country. Rev. xx. 7-11. "And when the thousand 
years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out 
to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and 
Magog, to gather them together to battle ; the number of whom (is) as the 
sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire 
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil 
that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the 
beast and false prophet (are), and shall be tormented day and night for 
ever and ever (unto the ages of ages)." Such is the narration of the 
Apocalypse. This graphic delineation of this invasion, beyond the thou- 
sand years, has in it many things worthy of special note. (1) Satan is the 
arch-enemy of the human race; and, therefore, the great enemy of the 
Redeemer of mankind. No sooner is he released out of his confinement 
than he moves into the regions of his former success. He moves away from 
the hub of the national wheel towards the circumference, where he meets 
his ancient friends, Gog and Magog. Here he finds hearts (mansions) 
empty swept and garnished. He travels round the globe in quest of all 
similar materials; finds them every where in the rim of the wheel. Into 
these elements, by aid of his friend, Gog, he excites an extended rebellion 
throughout the kingdom of Messiah, complaining bitterly of the partiality 
and tyranny of Messiah's reign ; that he has poured untold wealth into the 
coffers of those who dwell in the land of Israel, while they were living 
under oppressive laws, with comparatively few comforts. Without any 
afiFection for the Messiah, and allured by the deceitful representations of 
the arch-apostate; that the people who dwelt in the land of Israel were 
wealthy, unwarlike, without munitions of war, walls, or any defense, would 
be easily robbed, and that it would not be difiicult to overthrow the king- 
dom. They enlist in the army of Gog, mount their chargers and move 
towards the land of Israel. The plains of northern Asia are alive with their 
advancing columns. Armies are advancing from all parts of the old dra- 
gonic world. They enter the land of Israel in its four quarters, and move 
towards the capital of the great empire. They surround the beloved city, 
storm its strongholds and enter upon their work of rapine and plunder. 
Up to this hour they have met with little resistence. Judah, remembering 
his victory over the same race a thousand years before, makes some show 



310 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of fight. He is borne down by the hostile masses. They sack the city. A 
remnant, left in despair, are about to surrender, when suddenly a shout is 
heard above the din of battle and rapine. The eye is turned towards the 
Mount of Olives. " There comes the Lord my God. All holy ones with 
thee.'' Amazement seizes the enemy as they see this King of kings and 
Lord of lords. The Lord roars out of Zion and utters His voice from 
Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shake. He fights against them 
with pestilence and with blood; He rains upon them an overflowing rain 
and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Fire comes down from God out 
of heaven and devours them. Thus perish Gog and his multitudes. This 
is his last conflict with the Son of God and His holy ones. We have no 
lamp to light up His pathway any farther. An endless night follows and 
puts an end to our Russian prophetic history. As the dark curtain shuts 
out Russia's future political history from that battle and onward, it is well 
to close the "Russian Phase of the Eastern Question " by offering some 
thoughts relative to the associated and concluding events of her remark- 
able history. We have been particular, so far, to notice the Divine hand 
in the origin, location and developments of nationalities, whether civil- 
ized or savage ; and, as far as practicable, to discover His purposes in 
their acts, as more or less directly connected with the kingdom of His Son, 
the Messiah. We are fully satisfied that God has a plan which has been, 
and still is, carried out in the world of active intelligence, as well as in its 
physical structure. Such a fixed system was in the mind of the Diety when 
He revealed the future to His holy seers. As God had a pattern for a 
tabernacle, its priesthood and services, so has He for the whole earth as 
man's special dwelling place. He had, from the beginning of the earth's 
history, definitely arranged all of its families and nationalities; fixed their 
number, order, character, locality and mission. These are revealed to 
Daniel in the vision of the metallic image, a symbol of human domination ; 
and the stone increasing to a mountain, a symbol of Messiah's kingdom. 
This plan of human and Divine rule has been unfolding and in process of 
accomplishment for nearly twenty-five centuries, and is still in active pro- 
gress towards its final consummation. God selected a land for a special 
people, who were to be the Royal High-priesthood for all nations. Here 
He expounded His laws, erected His temple, established His priesthood, 
introduced His typical worship and its ceremonies, and taught the first 
or primary elements of the Stone Kingdom. Around this divinely- 
appointed seminary He planted families, which developed into nations. 
This one land and nation became the hub of earth's nationalities, while 
out of other families, according to a certain fitness, God made its spokes and 
rim. This organic national wheel is the pattern of the plan of Jehovah's 
earthly domination. One of the great rim nations is the Russian empire, 
one of the last of Gentile nations to give way to the triumphant reign of 
Messiah. We close our narrative of the " Russian Phase " by enunciating 
the following propositions, which we shall investigate under other phases 
and in our general conclusion : 1. The stone increased to a mountain, 
represents Messiah's reign. 2. The parables relating to the kingdom of 



RUSSIAN PHASE. 311 

God, represent this growth. 3. Isaiah ix. 7. " Of the increase of (his) gov- 
ernment" should be, "Of the increase of (his) dominion," the " governed " 
increasing with his dominion. Such is here the proper meaning of the 
Hebrew niWf2il — ham-mis-rah, rendered "government." Such a trans- 
lation conveys no definite idea. 4. The overthrow of nations has an order, 
the beast and false prophet, are not judged and executed at the same time. 
5. " Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies," distinctly represents Christ's 
official reign as progressing in the midst of hostile nation (see Ps. ii. 
and xlv. 5.). 6. " For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His 
feet." 1. Cor. xv. 25. This shows the same great fact, with this addition, 
that this reign is limited to the subjugation. These propositions will be 
explained under the " Phase of Messiah's Reign." 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 



In tracing the ^' Ottoman Phase of the Eastern Question " it will be 
necessary to go back to the origin of the Turk and bring to our aid every 
event in his history that we may be able to discover God's purposes in giv- 
ing birth to such a family and such a nationality, and why he placed him 
in such a position. Our purpose will be to make the reader familiar with 
the origin, life, character and office of this illustrious personage, that he 
may read his future or prophetic history with ease, intelligence and profit. 
We will trace his house and lineage, his ethnology and his ethnography, 
that we may understand the philosophy of his appointment to his special 
work. Why did the Deity select the Ottoman Turk to accomplish such an 
important part of His great national purposes ? The reasons will appear as 
we advance in its history. 

In a beautiful location, in what is justly entitled to the name of the 
paradise of the Eastern world of modern times is the city of the "Golden 
Horn," Constantinople, the city of the Greek Caesars, for centuries the proud 
rival of the city of Romulus. In one of its palaces, made noted for the ex- 
tent and attractiveness of its seraglio, may be seen a turbaned dignitary, 
known the world over as the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Whence, 
when and for what purpose came he there ?■ are questions of great magni- 
tude, and as such deserve critical investigation. The Ottoman Turk — who 
is he? Let us examine into his origin and past history. The Turk, eth- 
nologically, is Mongolian according to Blumenbach, Cuvier and Dr. Prich- 
ard; Altaic, Mongolia, etc., of the Turanian stock one branch. The Turk 
is evidently of the family of Japheth. That family extended over Central, 
Northern and Western Asia and Europe. The Turks were swarms out of 
the Turanian hive, north of Iran or Persia. History first describes them as 
slaves, occupied in mining and making implements used principally in war. 
They were miners and mechanics, residing at the foot of the Alai or golden 
mountains, slaves of the great Khan of Geougen. Becoming very numer- 
ous and disliking their servitude, the thought of liberty was forged out of 
the armor they were making. ^' If these arms assist our masters to main- 
tain their assumed rights, why can they not be turned to subserve our in- 
terests? Why can they not secure our liberty?" All they wanted was an 
efficient head. Such a leader soon appeared in the person of Bertezena 
(gray wolf.) The Turks, Mongols and Romans have each, traditionally, a 
wolfish origin. As tradition says of Romulus, so the same has it that As- 
sena, (wolf) the first chief of the Assenian Turks of the Altai (Altun Tagh, 
golden mountain) was suckled by a she-wolf, who afterwards made him the 
father of a numerous family. In memory of this fabulous origin, these pri- 
mary Turks that dwelt at the foot of the Altai had inscribed upon their 
(312) 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 313 

banners the image of this fierce animal. Before their immense armies of 
cavalry moved the standard of the golden wolf. This Turko-Scythian fam- 
ily, located as they were, at the foot of the Altai, Imans, Caif, or golden 
mountain, denominated the Girdle of the Earth, resided at the centre and 
summit of Asia, from which mountain range flow the great rivers of North- 
ern, Eastern and Southern Asia, the Obe, Yenisei, Lena, discharging their 
waters beneath continuous bridges of ice, into the Arctic ocean, distant 
1,000 miles, the Amoor, the Hoang-Ho and the Yang-tse-Kiang towards the 
Eastern seas and other immense waters towards the south. Their locality 
is placed equally distant from the Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese and the 
Bengal seas, 2,000 miles. 

Bertezena (gray wolf) united these iron miners, forgers and masters 
into armies and conquered the neighboring tribes, after which he solicited 
in marriage the daughter of the great Khan of the Gleougen, who proudly 
refused his daughter to a slave and mechanic. Bertezena then formed a 
more noble matrimonial alliance with a princess of China. He established 
his empire in the heart of Tartary by a great battle in which he quite anni- 
hilated the nation of the Geougen. In commemoration of their national 
origin the Turks kept an annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was 
heated to redness and a smith's hammer was successively used by the 
prince and his nobles. This ceremony for centuries excited the Turkish 
pride of their honorable yet humble origin. 

The royal encampment, with its standard of the golden wolf, was sel- 
dom out of sight of the golden mountain. While this is strictly true of the 
Turko-Scythian empire, still it was distinctly a nomadic empire, as we 
learn from the following : " One of the successors of Bertezena was tempted 
by the luxury and superstition of China, but his design of building cities 
and temples was defeated by the simple wisdom of a barbarian counselor. 
'The Turks,' he said, 'are not equal in numbers to one hundredth part of 
the inhabitants of China. If we balance their power and elude their armies, 
it is because we wander without any fixed habitations, in the exercise of 
war and hunting. Are we strong ? we advance and conquer; are we feeble? 
we retire and are concealed. Should the Turks confine themselves within 
the walls of cities the loss of a battle would be the destruction of their em- 
pire. The bonzes preach only patience, humility and the renunciation of 
the world. Such, O King, is not the religion of heroes.' " 

The religion of the Turko-Scythian, or first empire of the Turks, which 
was in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era, was the worship of 
fire, earth and water, and their priests continued in the practice of divina- 
tion. This empire had its day before the birth of Mohammed, and, conse- 
quently, were ignorant of that system of Unitarianism. Their written laws 
were severe. For theft was ten-fold restitution ; adultery, murder and trea- 
son were capital crimes ; cowardice was the chief of all crimes. This first em- 
pire of the Turks, as well as the two that succeeded it, was a nation of cav- 
alry. The prophetic symbol pf a Turkish warrior is a mounted horseman, 
and that of an army of Turks is a body of cavalry. (Rev. ix. 16-19.) 

As the subjugated nations marched under the Turkish standard, their 



314 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

cavalry were proudly computed by millions. One of their effective armies 
numbered four hundred thousand soldiers, and in less than fifty years they 
were connected in peace and war with the Romans, the Persians and the 
Chinese. To the north they included Kamptchatka, a people of hunters 
and fishermen, who traveled in sledges drawn by dogs, and who dwelt like 
foxes under the earth. Without cities or towns, the chief encampment of 
the Turks was in latitude 49°, not far from the polar circle. One of their 
more southern conquests was that of the Nepthalites or White Huns, a po- 
lite and warlike people who occupied the commercial cities of Bochara and 
Samarcand, who had vanquished the Persian monarch and carried their 
victorious arms along the banks and perhaps to the mouth of the Indus. 
On the west the Turkish cavalry advance to the lake Mseotis, passing the 
lake on the ice. Lake Mseotis is the ancient name of the sea of Azov, a trib- 
utary of the Black sea. They extended to the Black sea and often invaded 
China. Such was the vast extent of this Turkish empire that its chief mon- 
arch was obliged to place it under three subordinate princes of his own fam- 
ily, who soon forgot their gratitude and allegiance. Luxury was introduced 
among these Turkish conquerors, which soon became fatal. The vanquished 
nations, instigated by the Chinese, threw off the Turko-Scythian yoke, and 
the empire, after continuing two (Centuries, fell to pieces. 

Such was the career of the first Turkish empire. Idleness, luxury and 
divisions were its three fatal enemies. Prosperity had caused them to change 
all their early habits, and, not being an industrious people, they fell into 
such habitual practices as tended to reduce and destroy all those attributes 
which had made them a great and prosperous family. This first Turkish 
empire was the great nomadic empire of Central Asia. This first empire 
introduces us to the infancy and conducts us through the childhood of 
that noted family, establishes their Mongolian and Japhetic origin. No- 
ah's prophetic enunciations relative to the future of his three sons and 
their families, will aid us very materially relative to our present investi- 
gations. 

We have already introduced the thought that God has ever had a 
unity of plan relative to the peopling of the earth after the flood, that 
there was to be one and only one, central nation, occupying one central 
position, where He proposed especially to dwell, and which He designed 
to make the chief seat or empire for His son, Messiah, and that all other 
nations would be so arranged as to occupy chief or subordinate places in 
relation to that family, either as first or second-class servants. To use the 
illustration already introduced, we call that nation the hub of the impe- 
rial wheel while other nations form its spokes and rim, each nation being 
a spoke or part of the rim, as best suits the purposes of the Deity. 

What positions will be filled by each of Noah's three sons and their 
posterity ? With which of these sons did God design to take up His special 
abode? and in what land? These problems will be distinctly solved be- 
fore we close our various national phases. God has a purpose relative to 
the earth and its nations, and He has revealed sufiicient data by which to 
solve all its intricate national problems. Turn with us to Gen., ix. 26-29, 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 315 

and let us read some of His national predictions: "And he (Noah) said, 
cursed (be) Canaan ; a servant of servants (second-class servants) shall he be 
unto his brethren (the children of Shem and Japheth.") — V. 25. More than 
forty-two centuries has this been in progress of fulfillment. V. 26. — " And 
he said, blessed (be) the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant." This has been in process of fulfillment in every age since it was 
uttered, (B. C. 2347.) (1.) The subjugation of the Canaanites by the child- 
ren of Abraham and of Shem, (2,) in the servitude of the Negroes. V. 27. — 
"And God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; 
and Canaan shall be his servant." The name Japheth means enlargement. 
See how his boundaries have been extended. Not only Europe, but Asia 
Minor, part of Armenia, Iberia, the whole of the vast regions of Asia north 
of Taurus, and probably America, fell to the share of his posterity." — Bags- 
ter. All of the ancient Scy thia in Asia, north of Turkestan was settled by 
the children of Japheth. God has especially dwelt in the tents of Shem. 
*' In Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel. In Salem, also, is 
His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion." — Ps. Ixxvi. 1-2. Jesus, in 
human flesh, dwelt while on earth among the children of Abraham and of 
Shem. The idea is distinctly presented that the Lord's dwelling place is 
with Shem, and that the children of Ham and Japheth shall serve the fam- 
ily of Shem, the former in a lower, the latter in a higher position, each na- 
tionality in that position especially designed by Jehovah. In our present 
discussion of the Ottoman Phase we purpose to delineate the peculiar edu- 
cation of the Turk and the object of that education 

THE SECOND TUEKISH EMPIRE WITH PRELIMINARY FAMILIES. 

Two quite limited Turkish dynasties intervene between the Turko- 
Scythian and Seljukian empire. Our progressive history requires us to 
give their names, character, and their chronological eras. A brief outline 
will be sufficient. 

(2) The Dynasty of Samanides arose A. D. 874, and continued to A. 
D. 999 — 125 years, under ten princes, who broke, by their revolt, the bonds 
of political servitude to the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who 
still paid a nominal allegiance to the Caliph of Bagdad, the distant succes- 
sor of Mohammed. The Samani and Dilemi were two dynasties which di- 
vided between them the kingdom of Persia, about the beginning of the 
10th century. The more northern dynasty, the Samani, had obtained from 
the Caliph the government of Transoxiana in A. D. 874 ; and to this 
Ismail, the most noted prince of the family, speedily added Khaurezm, 
Balkh, Khorassan, Seistan, and many portions of Northern Turkestan. 

(3) The Dynasty of Gasnevides followed Samanides, A. D. 999-1183 
— 184 years, in its duration. This Dynasty was one of power, and, in its 
day, had very considerable celebrity. The first after Sebectagi (the father 
of the dynasty) was Mahmud, of Gazna, the emporium of the Indian mer- 
chants. For Mahmud the title of Sultan was invented, and his kingdom 
was soon extended from Transoxiana to the vicinity of Ispahan, and from 



316 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. The principal source 
of his fame and wealth was the holy war which he waged against the Gen- 
toos of Hindostan. He made twelve expeditions into that country. His 
battles and sieges were endless. Over deep rivers, lofty mountains, amid 
drifting sands and howling tempests, during all seasons, that zealous mon- 
arch was in pursuit of his numerous enemies. He penetrated far beyond the 
conquests of Alexander, and compelled all to bow to the Mussulman 
standard. Many hundred temples were destroyed, and thousands of idols 
were demolished, of which materials (gold, silver and diamonds) his sol- 
diers were made rich. " The pagoda of Sumnat was endowed with a reve- 
nue of two thousand villages : two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to 
the service of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in 
water from the distant Ganges ; the subordinate ministers consisted of three 
hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing girls, 
conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the temple were pro- 
tected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or arti- 
ficial precipice; and the city and adjacent country were peopled by a na- 
tion of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge 
and Delhi (which Mahmud had taken — W.) ; but if the impious stranger 
should presume to approach their holy precincts he would surely be over- 
whelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge the faith 
of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian 
deity. Fifty thousand of his worshipers were pierced by the spear of the 
Moslems ; the walls were scaled ; the sanctuary was profaned ; and the con- 
queror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The tremb- 
ling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions sterling for his ransom ; 
and it was urged by the wisest counsellors that the destruction of a stone 
image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos ; and that such a sum 
might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. ' Your reasons,' 
replied the Sultan, 'are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of pos- 
terity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols ' (he was Mahmud, the 
idol breaker). He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, 
concealed in the belly of the statue, explained, in some degree, the de- 
vout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol were dis- 
tributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to the edifying 
tale, and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of guardian of 
the fortune and faith of Mohammed." — Gibbon. 

Mahmud's subjects enjoyed the blessings of peace and prosperity. His 
devotions covered his smaller vices, and he was celebrated for his justice 
and magnanimity, even where the lives of his own sons were involved. 
An illustrious example we give below. "As he sat in the Divan, an un- 
happy subject bowed before the throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish 
soldier who had driven him from his house and bed. ' Suspend your 
clamors,' said Mahmud; ' inform me of his next visit, and ourself in per- 
son will judge and punish the offender.' The Sultan followed his guide, 
invested the house with guards, and extinguishing the torches, pronounced 
the death of the criminal, who had been seized in the act of rapine and 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 817 

adultery. After the execution of the sentence, the lights were rekindled, 
Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer, and rising from the ground demanded 
some homely fare, which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. 
The poor man, whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his 
astonishment and curiosity ; and the courteous monarch condescended to 
explain the motives of this singular behavior. 'I had reason to suspect 
that none, except one of my sons, could dare to perpetrate such an outrage ; 
and I extinguished the lights that my justice might be blind and inex- 
orable. My prayer was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender, 
and so painful was my anxiety that I had passed three days without 
food, since the first moment of your complaint.' " — Gibbon. 

Mahmud's greatest sin was avarice, and in the vast resources of the 
Indies it was fully gratified. Hindostan is full of precious metals and the 
productions of her soil have in all ages attracted the gold and silver of the 
world. The Mohammedan conquerors robbed Hindostan of her virgin 
treasures. Mahmud, in the latter days of his life, evinced the vanity of 
such possession, the result of such unceasing toil, so dangerously held, 
and so inevitably lost. Looking through the treasury chambers at Gazna, 
he burst into tears, and again closed the doors, without bestowing any 
portion of those riches which he was about to leave. 

The day following his military forces passed in review before him. 
One hundred thousand foot, fifty thousand horse, and thirteen hundred 
war elephants. Tears again flowed at the instability of human great- 
ness ; and his grief was imbittered by the hostile progress of the Turk- 
mans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom. 
It will be seen that this dynasty ruled in Persia, though a scion from 
the ancient Turko-Scythian root. 

In tracing the dynasty of the Gaznevides to its final extinction, it is 
well to follow those events which led to such a catastrophe. Gibbon makes 
the following very significant remark : " In the modern depopulation of 
Asia, the regular operation of government and agriculture is confined to 
the neighborhood of cities ; and the distant country is abandoned to the 
pastoral tribes of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans. With the origin and 
growth of the Turkmans, we are at present, more especially interested, 
since they are the ancient scion of the Seljukian, and finally of the Otto- 
man empires. With a map of Asia before him let the reader fix his eyes 
upon the basin of the Caspian and Aral Seas. The Turkman family has 
two divisions — one west ; the other east of those seas. This basin with the 
surroundings is now known by the names of Turkestan (east and west), 
Georgia and Circassia. In the midst of civilized nations, they preserve the 
manners of the Scythian desert, remove their encampments with the 
change of seasons, and feed their cattle among the ruins of palaces and 
temples. Their flocks and herds are their only riches ; their tents, either 
black or white, according to the color of their banner, are covered with 
felt, and of a circular form ; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin ; and a 
robe of cloth or cotton, their summer garment; the features of the men are 
harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft and pleasing. 



318 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Their wandering life maintains the spirit and exercise of arms ; they fight 
on horseback ; and their courage is displayed in frequent contests with each 
other and with their neighbors. For the license of pasture they pay a slight 
tribute to the sovereign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the 
hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration of Eastern Turkmans, 
the most ancient of their race, may be ascribed to the tenth century of the 
Christian era. 

For centuries the Jaxartes was the Turkman's southern boundary to- 
ward Persia. But as the Persian power weakened this river was often 
crossed by the nomadic Turkman. Embracing the Mohammedan faith, 
they obtained a free encampment in the spacious plains and pleasant cli- 
mate of Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who aspired to the 
throne encouraged the emigrations, which recruited their armies, awed their 
subjects and rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of 
Turkestan ; and this policy was abused by Mahniud, the Gaznevide, be- 
yond the example of former times. He was admonished of his error by 
a chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The 
Sultan had inquired what supply of men he could furnish for military ser- 
vice. 'If you send,' replied Ismael, 'one of these arrows into our camp, 
fifty thousand of your servants will mount on horseback.' 'And if that 
number,' continued Mahmud, 'should not be sufficient?' 'send this second 
arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will have fifty thousand more.' 
' But,' said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, ' if I should stand in 
need of the whole force of your kindred tribes ?' ' Despatch my bow,' was 
the last reply of Ismael, ' and as it is circulated around, the summons will 
be obeyed by two hundred thousand horse.' " — Gibbon. These answers, re- 
vealing the multitude and strength of those various clans, so thoroughly 
awakened the fears of Mahmud, that he removed them far south that the 
families might be separated by the river Oxus, and be surrounded by obe- 
dient cities. The face of the country was tempting; and the Sultan being 
removed by death, the shepherd Turkmans became robbers ; these bands 
of robbers were transformed into an army of conquerers, who spread over 
Persia as far as Ispahan and the Tigris. The Turkmans soon became so 
numerous and daring, that they did not fear to measure strength with the 
proudest sovereigns of Asia. 

Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too long neglected the 
advice of his wisest Omrahs. " Your enemies were at first a swarm of 
ants; they are now little snakes; and unless they be instantly crushed, 
they will require the venom and magnitude of serpents." Massoud 
marched in person against the Turkmans and was totally defeated, and his 
dynasty was succeeded in Persia by the dynasty of the Shepherd Kings. 
Thus ended the reign of the dynasty of the Gaznevides, after a prosperous 
continuance of nearly two centuries. 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 319 

\ 

THE SECOND EMPIRE — SELJUKIAN TURKS. 

The origin of the house of Seljuk may be traced as follows : — Seljuk, by 
our account, was the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from the great Afrasiab, 
Emperor of Turan. Uniting with this the Tartar history, the Seljukides 
descended from Mankavah, the virgin mother. For entering the harem 
of his prince, Seljuk was banished from East Turkestan; with a 
numerous tribe of his friends and vassals he crossed the Jaxartes, encamped 
in the neighborhood of Samarkand, embraced the religion of Mohammed, 
and acquired a crown of martyrdom in a war against the infidels. His age 
(107 years) surpassed the life of his son Michael, whose two sons, Togrul 
and Jaafar, he adopted. Togrul, at the age of forty-five, succeeded his grand- 
father, Seljuk, as Sultan at Nishapur, the royal city. The Seljuk-Turks 
were an ofishoot of the Hoei-Hu, a collection of Turkish tribes, who, being 
driven south-westward from the Chinese wall, had, in A. D. 744, over- 
whelmed that Turkish empire of Kiptchak (a territory extending north of 
the Caspian Sea, and stretching east and west from Turkestan to the Don). 
Seljuk was the chief of a small tribe which had gained possession of Bok- 
hara and the surrounding country. His sons, attracted by the beauty and 
fertility of Khorassan, began, about A. D. 1027, to emigrate to that country, 
and, after some struggles with the Gaznevide Sultans, established themselves 
in northern Khorassan, with Togrul Beg, the eldest grandson of Seljuk, as 
their chief, and Nishapur as their Capital. Before entering upon the investi- 
gation of the progressive development of the empire of the Seljukian Turks 
it is well to notice the progressive movements of the Turkish empires to- 
wards the south and west, and their gradual changes in religion, laws, man- 
ners and customs ; or their education in new ranges of thought and modes 
of life. 

The Turko-Scythian empire was formed of slaves, miners, mechanics 
and herdsmen ; an empire of Scythian shepherds of the Mongol Tartar and 
Turanian families. Their armies were composed of cavalry. They dwelt 
in tents, their towns and cities were movable encampments. Their semin- 
aries also followed them. Their great chiefs constituted their faculties of 
instruction. In these camps were their courts of justice, their temples of 
worship, their national embodiment, the homes of their families and the 
location of their property, real and personal. They were purely a nomadic 
empire, with their royal encampment in a high northern latitude, 49° north. 
The Capital of the second empire, that of the Seljukian Turks, was in lati- 
tude 36°, thirteen degrees further south and thirty-six degrees further 
west. Such changes in locality have a special signification. The changes 
of locality brought other necessary changes in mode of life, in habits of 
thought. This we regard their first rudimental education for, and their 
first movement towards, their new oSicial location, the custodians of the 
national and commercial interests of the East and the West; of the high- 
ways between Europe and Asia : Gate-keepers of the chief highways of the 
refined nations of the globe. This Turkish movement is not in the direc- 



320 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tion of the great emigrant route from Asia to Europe, but first south and 
west, then west along the imperial chordon. This Turkish family, the 
ancestors of the Othman Turk, first exchanged the shepherd, or nomadic 
zone, for a location in the imperial zone ; then his religion of nature, or 
image worship for the Unitarianism of Mohammed. To this religion they 
have zealously adhered to the present time. These two forward movements 
in Turkish character, induced by their changes of location and religion, 
went far towards making a new people of that Turanian race. The follow- 
ing ideas and elementary facts should never be out of the mind of the 
reader and student of prophetic history : (1) A national chordon, formed 
of the northern boundaries of China, Asia, Greece and Rome, extending 
from the eastern Asiatic seas to the Atlantic ocean, has existed for ages, 
evidently designed in the divine arrangement of the great national fields to 
restrain the shepherd tribes within their proper nomadic zone. (2) Why 
did God the Jehovah select, as custodians of the national high-ways between 
the East and the West, which office had been filled by the refined Greek of 
the eastern empire for eleven centuries, the savage Sythian shepherd of the 
nomadic zone ? A Turanian Turk, requiring centuries of national drill to 
fit him for the duties of his new and responsible station, is taken 
out of the frozen north, instead of some southern people of intelli- 
gence. This is one of the great national problems of the age, 
and one very intricate in its solution. (3) Among the nations, and 
with the great men of this age, the Eastern Question involves 
the following thought: How can the Othman Turk be removed from 
his office of custodian of the great eastern high-ways, those through 
Egypt and Constaninople especially, without involving Europe and the 
world in a terrible and protracted conflict? (4) The Eastern Question, in 
the divine mind, is quite another thing. How can the Hebrew race, includ- 
ing the twelve tribes of Israel, be restored to nationality in their own land, 
under Jesus of Nazareth, their Messiah, in the face of hostile powers, 
especially the Russian empire of the North ? These four problems demand 
solutions. These solutions are involved in the movements of the ruling 
nations of the world. They involve the destinies of all nations. And the 
science of these present movements involves the proper solution of the des- 
tinies of all nations of the overshadowing future. Keeping these problems 
before us we shall follow the Turanian, Seljukian Turk through the drill 
of his second empire. 

Togrul Beg, the grandson of Seljuk, may be called the first Sultan of 
the second Turkish empire. The Persian sceptre soon passed over to the 
Turkish nation. The province of Aderbijan (Media) was conquered. Ap- 
proaching the confines of the Greek empire, the eastern division of the 
Roman empire, Togrul sent a herald to demand the tribute and obedience 
of the Emperor of Constantinople. Togrul was the father of his people; 
and in Persia he put an end to anarchy, and became the guardian of peace 
and public justice. Under Togrul Beg the Turkmans were divided into 
two classes : those who continued to dwell in tents and were herdsmen 
and shepherds, like their ancestors, who, under their native princes. 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 321 

extended their military colonies from the Oxus to the Euphrates ; and those 
who dwelt in villages, towns and cities, officers and members of court, and 
were intelligent, refined by business, and made effeminate by pleasure. 
The higher and more refined class imitated the dress, language and man- 
ners of Persia; and the royal palaces of Nishapur and Rei displayed the 
order and magnificance of a powerful empire. The most worthy of the 
Arabians and Persians were made officers of state, and the whole body of 
the Turkish people embraced witli zeal the religion of Mohammed. 
The triumph of the Koran was great among these northern Scythian Turks. 
The religion of Mohammed was deficient in Pagan show, but superior in 
the power of the sword. The Sultans of the Seljukian Turks were, at first, 
noted for their faith and zeal. Each day Togrul repeated the five prayers 
which are required of the true believers ; of each week, the first two days 
were consecrated by an extraordinary fast ; and in every city a mosque was 
completed before he presumed to lay the foundations of a palace. 

Being a believer in the Koran, Togrul held the Caliph, his successor, in 
great reverence. He made two visits to Cayem the Caliph, residing at Bag- 
dad. Togrul was declared to be the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the 
prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honor and pre- 
sented with seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian 
empire. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk ; two crowns were placed 
on his head ; two cimeters girded to his side, as the symbol of a double 
reign over the East and West. The Caliph took a Turkish virgin into his 
harem, but proudly refused his daughter, not allowing the blood of the 
Hashermites to mingle with the blood of a Scythian shepherd. Alp Arslan 
succeeded his uncle, Togrul Beg (he having no children), in A. D. 1064. He 
was born in Turkestan, A. D. 1029. He ascended the throne of his father 
David 1053. He therefore filled the thrones of his father and uncle. His 
first act was to unite his extended dominions into one vast monarchy. 
After the union of his dominion was secured he embraced Islamism, when 
he took the surname of Alp- Arslan (the lion heart), that not being his 
real name. He received from the Caliph the title of the defender of the 
faith (Adhad-eddin), with this extreme honor, namely, that prayers 
should be said in his name. He had a superior vizier (prime 
minister), Nisam-al-Mulk, a man of great learning, and the founder 
and patron of all the colleges and academies in the empire. Leav- 
ing the internal administration to his vizier. Alp Arslan directed his powers 
to the enlargement of his dominions. He moved his armies towards the 
Greek empire. He carried with him the Scythian valor with the fanaticism 
of new proselytes and the art and riches of a powerful monarch. " The 
myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from 
Tarus to Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand 
Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet." His conquests 
rolled away from the open country without inflicting damage on the Greek 
empire. He crossed the Euphrates, entered Caesarea, carrying off the gates 
of the church of St. Basil, encrusted with gold and pearls. He conquered 
Armenia and Georgia in 1069, they being at that time Christian kingdoms. 
21 



322 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

This extended frontier was taken from the Greek empire. The most remark- 
able incident in his conquest of Georgia and Armenia was the blockade of 
the convent of Mariam-Nishin, situated on an island in the middle of a lake 
and considered impregnable. An earthquake overthrew the walls during 
the seige, when it immediately surrendered. Finding his army twice driven 
over the Euphrates by the forces of the Greek empire, Alp Arslan marched 
in person against the emperor, Romanus IV. In August, 1071, a bloody 
battle was fought near the fortress of Malasker, between the towns of Van 
and Erzeroum. The Greek emperor was defeated and taken prisoner, and 
only obtained his liberty by a ransom of £1,000,000, and an annual tribute 
of £100,000. About one year after this battle he was slain by an assassin 
at Berzem in his own native country, Turkestan, which he had invaded 
during his reign. His empire made considerable progress in extent and 
civilization. The fairest part of Asia was subject to his laws. Much of the 
glory of his reign was due to his vizier. The training was that of civiliza- 
tion. His institutions of learning were converting Scythian shepherds into 
intelligent citizens, and preparing men to fill all the varied positions of civil- 
ized life. His great success indicated the course of providence, in prepar- 
ing a people for a station occupied by a race enfeebled in body and mind by 
luxurious excesses. 

Malek Shah succeeded his father, Alp Arslan, to the throne of the em- 
pire of Seljukian Turks. He developed extraordinary resources, both as to 
physical endurance and mental activity. He exhibited a vigorous mix- 
ture of the fixed (civilized) and nomadic elements of social and political 
existence. He attained to and occupied the summit of his nation's great- 
ness. Under his administration the empire, a unit in every particular, 
reached its most ample boundaries, sweeping its ample curve beyond the 
hordes of eastern Turkestan, along the western borders of the Celestial em- 
pire, to the south as far as the spicy groves of Arabia Felix ; including 
Jerusalem (which they held twenty years, to the first crusade), and west- 
ward to the vicinity of Constantinople ; through Georgia and along the 
southern line of Siberia. The luxury of his harem was freely exchanged, 
by this royal shepherd, for the activity of the camp and the battlefield. 
Twelve times was each province of his vast .dominions visited by its rest- 
less sultan, and at each repetition of this extended circuit, innumerable 
favors were bestowed upon the people. He was a zealous Mohammedan, 
and was the first to be called the " Commander of the faithful." His pil- 
grimage to Mecca was one of great splendor, and abounded in liberal alms- 
giving. His encampments and places of refreshment through Arabia, 
made its deserts blossom like the rose. 

Hunting was his favorite amusement; and his sporting train consisted 
of forty-seven thousand horses. His reign had periods of peace and pros- 
perity. During these times the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces 
and hospitals, with mosques and colleges, attributes of civilization. Jus- 
tice and judgment were the accompaniments of his throne. He was the 
patron of Turkish literature. His palaces were vocal with the songs of a 
hundred poets. He convoked all the learned astronomers of the East to 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 323 

reform and correct the calendar. During the reign of Malek Shah, the 
Gelalsean era was introduced ; " and all errors, either past or future, were 
corrected by a computation of time which surpasses the Julian, and ap- 
proaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style." — Gibbon. Many of the na- 
tional improvements are due to the superior talents of his Persian vizier, 
Nizam-ul-Mulk, under whose firm, just, and wise government, the rights of 
all classes were maintained, religion promoted, and learning encouraged. 
Hospitals, caravansaries, bridges, roads, and canals attest the zeal with 
which the commercial interests of the empire were furthered ; while the 
colleges of Bassora, Ispahan, and Herat, the law college of Bagdad, and the 
observatory (the first in Asia) of the same city, indicate the care bestowed 
on the promotion of literature and science. 

With Malek Shah expired the unity and grandeur of this second 
Turkish empire. Of the many independent sultanies that sprang out of 
its roots, four may be regarded the principal: (1) Persia, (2) Kerman, (3) 
Syria, (4) Roum ; some times called " New Rome." This last sultany con- 
tinued for 224 years — from A. D. 1075 to 1299 ; and during that period it 
was engaged in numerous wars with the Byzantines, and with the crusaders, 
both of whom learned to dread its power. This was the great Seljukian 
empire of Asia Minor, and was founded by Soliman, a great-grandson of 
Seljuk. This sultany we shall follow, since out of its ruins sprang the 
present Ottoman empire. Anatolia (Asia Minor) was overrun and fully 
subjugated by Soliman, the valiant, and eldest son of Malek Shah. He ac- 
cepted the royal standard, which gave him the free conquests and heredi- 
tary command of the provinces of the Roman empire, from Erzeroom to 
Constantinople, and the unknown regions of the West. Passing the 
Euphrates with his four brothers, he soon pitched the Turkish camp in 
Phrygia ; and his fleet cavalry laid waste the country as far as the Hel- 
lespont and the Black Sea. At this time the Byzantine throne was in dis- 
pute between two rival claimants, Bryennius the European, and Botoniates 
the Asiatic candidates. Soliman espousing the cause of the Asiatic claim- 
ant, moved forward from Antioch to Nice, joining the banners of the Cres- 
cent and of the Cross. After his ally Botoniates was seated upon the 
throne at Constantinople, Soliman was honorably entertained in the Gre- 
cian capital ; and two thousand Turks were transported into Europe. 
The European capital was saved at the sacrifice of the Asiatic provinces. 
Thus the Turks gradually advanced ; and, by their numerous fortifications, 
gave satisfactory evidence that they intended to remain. River passes and 
mountains were secured, and Asia Minor had become the conquered and 
adopted land of Soliman, the Seljukian Sultan. Soliman was a devoted 
champion of the Moslem faith, and his empire spread over Anatolia, ex- 
tending to a point within sixty miles of the Byzantine capital. The Chris- 
tians were made tributary, paying for the privilege of worshiping God 
through His only begotten Son. Turkman camps were seen on the moun- 
tains, on the plains and in thel valleys. Many thousand Christian chil- 
dren were circumcised, and thousands of beautiful females became inmates 
of Turkish harems. The cities of the seven churches of Asia fell under 



324 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the dominion of the Turk. One of the most interesting conquests of the 
Seljukian Turks was that of the holy city Jerusalem, which soon became 
(by the Crusades) the theatre of nations. With Omar the people had 
stipulated the assurance of their religion and property ; but the articles 
were interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to dispute ; 
and in the four hundred years of the reign of the caliphs, the political 
climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the vicissitudes of storm and sun- 
shine." — Gibbon. Three-fourths of the city the Mohammedans claimed for 
their population and proselytes. A peculiar district was set apart for the 
Greek patriarch and his clergy, with their congregations. Two pieces of 
gold were required as the price of the protection. The sepulchre of Christ, 
and the church of the Resurrection were left under the control of the Chris- 
tian residents and pilgrims. The occupancy of the city by the Moham- 
medan votaries, increased the number of Christian pilgrims. They poured 
into Jerusalem, from all the various Christian countries, Greeks, Latins, 
Nestorians, Jacobites, the Copts and Abyssinians, Armenians and Geor- 
gians, had churches in Jerusalem ; each sect maintaining its own poor, and 
its peculiar modes of worship. The Franks (French) held the first rank 
in numbers, and in the zeal of its worshipers. Charlemagne, and Harun 
Alrashid (Caliph), the greatest of the Abbassides, were on terms of in- 
timacy, and presented the emperor with the keys of the holy sepulchre. 
After some years the Mohammedan unitarians were highly insulted at the 
worship which represents the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ as 
God. The Turkmans insulted the clergy, and dragged the patriarch by 
the hair along the pavement, and cast him into a dungeon, to extort a ran- 
som from the sympathy of his flock. Indignities grew apace until, in the 
space of about 18 years, they culminated in the first crusade. 

We have now placed before the reader a sufficient number of historic 
facts, relative to the second or Seljukian empire, to enable him to discern 
the onward progress of the Turkman family to the place of their pre- 
destined official abode, as custodians of the great national highways be- 
tween Europe and the East. 

Let us now contrast the first and second empires, those of the Scythian 
and Seljukian Turks; one Turanian family but of two dynasties. The 
feature which we propose to examine is the gradual change from a purely 
nomadic family to one of a mixed character, having an increasing amount 
of fixed elements ; such as belong to a fixed and civilized people. Such a 
character, one composed of a proper mixture of the two modes of life, 
would be required in such as would make an efficient custodian or gate- 
keeper among enlightened nations. He should have the nomadic move- 
ment and physical power combined with the intelligence of the fixed, cul- 
tivated races — " a burning and a shining light." The proper and efficient 
custodian must be a cross between the nomadic and the fixed. This will 
distinctly appear as we progress. The Greek empire officiated in that posi- 
tion till, by her luxury, she became too effeminate to hold back the great 
empire of the north. It was necessary, therefore, to supply this important 
position with another custodian, with youth and sufficient vigor to dis- 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 325 

charge the duties of the office. Such a people had to be selected, out of 
which such an officer might be formed. The great Ruler and Disposer of 
the earth and its national fields has seen fit, in His inscrutable providence, 
to select a Turanean Turk for that field and work. He has trained him for 
the office, placed him there, and has sustained him in the exercise of his 
official functions about 431 years. How long he will yet be kept in his 
position is with the Deity. Till his official work is done, a thousand Rus- 
sian empires could not depose him. How often has the great northern 
Autocrat attempted to seize his office and drive him out of Europe. Why 
has he not succeeded ? Simply for the reason that his term of office is not 
yet completed. Much is said relative to the decay of the " sick man ; " the 
" drying up of the Euphrates," without reflecting as to the power that 
holds him there, or as to the bloody results of his present removal. We 
have no special sympathy for the "Crescent," nor for the Ottoman em- 
pire, but we have a sympathy for that kingdom which claims Ottoman ter- 
ritory, and for the return of that people whose colonization would be im- 
peded, or totally obstructed by the fall of that empire; for should it now 
fall, Palestine would be Russian ; and if the Jews are not allowed to live 
in peace under the Russian government, as that empire is now constituted, 
what ground of hope would there be for the Jew should the land of Israel 
now fall into the hands of the Russian, the Gog of the last days ? We 
readily admit that the Turkish power, in itself, has been reduced. This, 
however, has been gradual, and in the ratio of the increasing British power, 
their friend, as well as the friend and supporter of the Hebrews. These 
changes have been accomplished without any general war. So that the 
British empire has, by the common consent of Europe, become the pro- 
tectorate of the Ottoman empire. What would have been the result if Rus- 
sia had driven the Turk out of Europe ? The wall of defense against Rus- 
sian aggression being removed, all Asia Minor would have fallen into her 
hands in less than six months, and the land of Israel would be Russian, 
and the Greek Church supreme in Palestine. To pray for the fall of the 
Ottoman empire, and, at the same time, petition for the return of the Jews, 
are praying for incompatibles. Where, either in history or in the Bible, 
has the Russian power been favored as a friend of God's people ? It has 
always been an enemy. The objector may claim the same relative to the 
Turks. Let us see if history will allow a parallel to exist between the two 
nations ? What territory has been conquered by the Turkmans, and is now 
held by them ? In Europe. European countries held by the Turkman for 
four centuries, were once of great renown. Macedon, whose Alexander ex- 
tended her power beyond the limits of the known world, within her do- 
minions is the Byzantine, or Eastern empire, which divided with old Rome 
the dominion of the earth. She possesses, as to soil and climate, the gar- 
den of Europe. 

The lands in Africa and Asia, under the Ottoman banner are still more 
renowned. The crescent holds the lands of the proud Pharaohs, of Moses, 
and of Hebrew bondage; the land of wonders executed by .Jehovah for the 
deliverance of His people ; the land of the pyramids, catacombs, and other 



326 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

noted monuments. The land of the Nile ; the paradise of the South ; the 
southern highway of the nations; the granary of Rome and its ancient 
empire. For many centuries those lands of Africa along the Nile, the 
Soudan, the countries bordering on the southern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, Such as Tripoli and Tunis, have submitted to Turkish rule. In 
Asia her noted countries are still more extended. There is Syria, includ- 
ing Palestine, the land of Israel, the land which God has seen fit to select 
as the special habitation of His own people. Here was His temple with 
its service and priesthood, the kingdom of David and his son Solomon, the 
central province of the stone kingdom of Messiah. In the southeast por- 
tion of Asiatic Turkey lies the ancient and famous Mesopotamia. Assyria 
was one of the earliest and most noted monarchies of Asia. The splendor 
of the Assyrians has been celebrated by all ancient historians. Babylon 
was the sun of ancient Asia. Its glory eclipsed all other eastern lumina- 
ries. Its hanging gardens, in which trees of great size were supported on 
terraces at an elevation above the earth, constituted one of the wonders of 
the ancient world. Bagdad, the proud and luxurious seat of the Saracenic 
caliphs, to the splendor of which Haroun al Raschid greatly contributed, 
has lost most of its former magnificence. Bagdad was the city of peace ; in 
many points superior to Babylon or Rome. In the days of its greatest 
beauty, the Saracenic empire hung in its meridian, and cast its golden 
beams over the eastern world. Literature and the arts flourished under the 
protection of the caliphs, poetry and romance shed a fancy charm over 
every day life, and music and other arts received diligent cultivation and 
encouragement. Other reigns have distinguished the territory of Asiatic 
Turkey. Tadmor of the desert (Palmyra) built by Solomon the city of the 
unfortunate Queen Zenobia, who was compelled to grace the triumph of 
the emperor Aurelian, after a Roman victory had cast its dark mantle over 
her former well earned fame. The fatal siege of Jerusalem under Titus, 
the destruction of the temple, the land of the crusades, the site of Troy and 
Tyre, and of the seven Asiatic churches. For four centuries and over, the 
Crescent in the eastern world has triumphed over, and has held the former 
lands of the cross. Such is one of the inscrutable providences of the 
Deity. He has allowed the doctrines of " The False Prophet " to triumph 
over the religion of the cross. Mohammedanism triumphs over what goes 
by the name of Christianity, and the Ottoman Turk holds the land given 
to Abraham and his seed. The Latin and Greek Christians, the religion of 
the Crusades has fallen before the religion of the false prophet Mohammed. 
Such is the record of the eastern world for the last four centuries. Why has 
this triumph of the crescent over the cross been permitted? Is it a judg- 
ment inflicted upon a widespread apostacy? If we be allowed to express our 
own views in our own way, we should say, (1) Mohammedanism in the 
hands of the Seljukian and Othman Turks is God's sledge-hammer to break 
in pieces the idolatrous apostacy of the eastern nominally Christian world; 
(2) God has allowed the Turks to conquer and hold those countries till the 
British empire, the king of the south, is ready to hold and defend the land 
of Israel against the gradual aggressions of the northern autocrat ; (3) to 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 327 

that end the Mohammedan power in the hands of the Turk must gradually- 
pass over from the Ottoman empire to the British empire ; (4) the British 
movements must be made through the Ottoman power, that the nations of 
Europe may not by any special pretext be aroused to any open opposition. 
These four points will be illustrated as we progress. Let us now follow 
the contrast between the first or Scythian, and the second or Seljukian 
empires of the Turanean Turks. The locations ef each shall first be in- 
vestigated ; then their education and modes of living, after which we shall 
point out the evident intent of the divine Being in said changes. 

CHANGE OF LOCATION. 

(1) The Turko-Scythian empire had its royal encampment, its only 
capital, in latitude 49° north far into the nomadic zone, around the base of 
the Altai, or golden mountain. Though its dominion spread over all 
northern Asia, its seat of empire never changed. As to location it was a 
Scythian empire. 

(2) Their education was limited to its primitive simplicity. They 
were shepherds, herdsmen, miners, and mechanics. Their military educa- 
tion was imparted to them as mounted horsemen. They were taught horse- 
manship, and instructed to handle the bow and the spear; they advanced, 
discharged their arrow, and retreated as they fitted a second arrow to the 
bow and again advanced, and discharged it at their enemies. This retreat- 
ing once deceived the Romans into a terrible defeat when contending with 
the Parthians. The Turks became the most expert of all horsemen. 
Hence in vision their armies are represented under the symbols of horse- 
men ready for battle. There were no institutions of learning. It was 
practical, and limited principally to their occupation. There were there- 
fore among them no literati. Each occupation instructed its pupils simply 
as apprentices. 

(3) The Turko-Scythian empire was, as to mode of living, in every 
particular nomadic, and continued its seat of empire in the shepherd zone. 
Their conquests extended over the larger portion of northern Asia, but 
these conquests were temporary. Royal shepherds were successful warriors 
in the open fields, but had no forces under their banners adapted to the 
work of holding cities and fortifications, their wandering shepherd lives 
revolted at such confinement. Their subjugation of kingdoms was like a 
storm, terrible in its tracks, but progressive ; to-day here, to-morrow, far 
onward. They had the gift of conquest, but not of occupation. 

(4) Why, then, should such a people be selected as custodians of a 
fixed position, as the guardians of national interests? Evidently for their 
superior physical stamina, and their Japhetian tendency towards conquest 
and enlargement : '• God shall enlarge Japheth, and he (Japheth — W.) shall 
dwell in the tents of Shem." Gen. ix. 27. A family (Turk) was selected 
from the laboring class, one that knew how, from long experience, to mine 
and reduce ores, forge arms, tend flocks and herds, and with immense 
physical power and endurance. As God raised up and educated Cyrus for 



328 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the conquest of Babylon and the deliverance of His people, the Jews from 
their 70 years' bondage, so has He chosen, educated and inducted into office 
the Turanian Turk, to hold the great national highways, till the British 
empire, having within her vast dominions the ten tribes, is ready to super- 
intend the return and union of the twelve tribes on the mountains of Israel, 
and to keep the Russian Gog out of Palestine, until the return and estab- 
lishment of Israel is fully accomplished. Should we repeat the same idea 
in various forms, it is that the reader may become familiar with what is 
evidently God's purpose in the Othman Turk. 

(2) Let us now examine the location, education, and modes of living 
of the second, or Siljukian empire of the Turks, that God's purposes rela- 
tive to that people may more distinctly appeair. (1) Change of location. 
Thirteen degrees further south, and about thirty-five degrees further west, 
in the direction, and near the latitude of their future chief abode. The 
capital of the second empire is in northwestern Persia, on the southern line 
of emigration to the West. This we may call their isecond national en- 
campment; the first, however, in their journey westward. The surround- 
ings of this second encampment differ as materially from that of the first, 
as the encampment itself. They now occupy a land which necessarily re- 
quires other very material changes. They are in the midst of cultivated 
lands, villages, large towns and cities; in the midst of schools and colleges; 
surrounded by men of learning and wisdom ; men of other religions, social 
and political ideas. They have exchanged the nomadic zone for the zone 
of the ancient empires, and have fixed their capital on the territory of the 
silver of Daniel's metallic image. Here they enter their new school of re- 
ligious, social and military training. Their lessons are to these northern 
shepherds strange and severe. New ideas of the Deity arise, and they be- 
come Mohammedans. A change of religion induces new religious thoughts, 
duties and modes of worship. They become zealous advocates of their new 
religious tenets and carry Mohammedanism with their conquests. It places 
the Turkish family, as to the unity of God, in the same religious class with 
the Jews, and, in that particular point, they were better fitted to exercise 
charity towards that people, than were the Latin and Greek Christians, for 
in those early days when the Seljukian Turks were the commanders of the 
faithful, the Christian sectaries were idolatrous. The churches were full of 
images. It was little else than baptized heathenism, that took the name 
of Christianity. As Constantinople was then governed by an emperor and 
Patriarch of the Greek Church, and as it was the purpose of Jehovah to 
punish that idolatrous hierarchy, it would be accomplished only by a 
people that were enemies to all idol systems and practices. It was proper, 
therefore, that the new custodian should abandon the idea of a plurality of 
gods for the unity of the God-head. This prime article of faith was joined 
to one radically false. Mohammed is the prophet of God — a creed com- 
posed of a radical truth and a radical falsehood. The Mohammedan creed 
was false ; the creeds of the Latin and Greek churches were false and idol- 
atrous. Which creed had the preference with Jehovah ? He has seen fit, 
for the last four centuries, to allow Mohammedan unitarianism to prevail 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 329 

in the East. Not that God approbates the Mohammedan creed ; but He 
has made use of one wicked nation to punish another, more wicked and 
corrupt, because of the abuse of greater light. The education of the second 
empire differed from that of the first in other particulars. The Seljukian 
Turks patronized the arts and sciences of civilization, and refinement. 
They established schools and colleges, and encouraged men of learning. 
They exchanged their shepherd tents for houses ; cultivated the soil, built 
towns and cities, connecting them with permanent highways ; established 
manufactories, and began a commercial intercourse with other nations. 
They, in their new educational drill, did not part with their nomadic con- 
stitutions and their desires for conquest. Their military education was 
such as to place their armies in the front rank of the armies of the age, 
so that their empire continued to advance its boundaries to the South and 
West. To keep up their nomadic vigor there was a constant influx of the 
shej)herd elements from the East and North ; a constant mixture of the 
nomadic and fixed elements. 

Two great events transpired under the empire of the Seljukian Turks 
which had a very marked influence upon their national character": (1) the 
first crusade, which armed all the western nations of Europe, to recover 
Jerusalem and its sacred localities from the hands of the Turks ; (2) the 
conquests of the Mongul Tartars, under Genghis (Zingis) Khan, who, in the 
beginning of the thirteenth century, spread his armies over Asia, tumbling 
into ruin all its ancient empires. These events have been previously 
noted. It now remains simply to state their effects upon the character 
and power of the Seljukian empire. 

The first crusade aimed at the total annihilation of the western divis- 
ion of that empire, which was established and held by Soliman, its able 
Sultan. For the time being it made a total wreck of his empire. The 
ultimate results were in favor of the Cresent. It brought vast numbers 
of shepherds of Turkish origin and drilled them for future conquests. 

(2). The invasion of Genghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, broke 
the Seljukian empire into fragments, from which it never recovered. Still 
the terrible overthrow finally resulted in the elevation and growth of 
Turkish character under a new dynasty. It sowed throughout Asia a vast 
amount of nomatic seed which produced in after ages a bountiful harvest. 
To the third Turkish empire we now turn to follow the progressive history 
of that noted race. 

(3). The Third Turkish Empire.— The Ottoman Empire. — We now 
enter upon the investigation of the third empire of the Turks; one that is 
known throughout the world as the Ottoman empire ; so named from 0th- 
man, its founder. We have described the Turko-Sythic and the Seljukian 
empires, that the student may have the entire history of the Turkman 
family ; having before him its family training, from its nomadic origin, at 
the foot of the " golden mountain " in Central Asia, to the present time, as 
the national custodian of the great high- ways of two grand divisions of the 
globe. We have aimed to prove the existence of God's superintending 
power over tbat people in carrying out His national purposes: have 



330 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

noticed to that end that the all-wise and powerful Ruler has given into 
the hands of that race all the ancient national and sacred localities in 
northeastern Africa, southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, forming 
a vast circular area, composed of three grand divisions of the earth, and has 
made him, for four centuries at least, the guardian, visible, of the great 
Eastern interests. It now remains that we trace the progressive history of 
the Turanian Turk under this third and last imperial training; his inaugu- 
ration into his new and responsible office of custodian, and the manner in 
which, for four centuries, he has discharged its very onorous duties. 

The Ottoman was, originally, formed out of fragments of the Seljukian 
empire, which had been broken to pieces by the terrible Zingis Khan, the 
Mongul Tartar. For a view of its original location we must turn our eyes to 
the Caspian basin, on the northern confines of Persia. Its origin is thus 
described by Gibbon : — " The decline of the Monguls (Monguls — W.) gave a 
free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman empire. After the retreat 
of Zingis, the Sultan Gelaleddin, of Corizme, had returned from India to 
the possession and defense of his Persian kingdoms. In the space of eleven 
years that hero fought in person fourteen battles ; and such was his activity 
that he led his cavalry in seventeen days from Tefliis to Kerman, a march 
of a thousand miles. Yet he was oppressed by the jealousy of the Moslem 
princes, and the innumerable armies of the Moguls; and after his last 
defeat Gelaleddin perished ignobly in the mountains of Curdistan. His 
death dissolved a veteran and adventurous army, which included under 
the name of Carizmians or Corasmins, many Turkman hordes that had 
attached themselves to the Sultan's fortune. The bolder and more power- 
ful chiefs invaded Syria, and violated the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem ; 
the more humble engaged in the service of Aladin, Sultan of Iconiun ; 
and among these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line. They had 
formerly pitched their tents near the southern banks of the Oxus, in the 
plains of Mahan and near the Nesa; and it is somewhat remarkable that 
the same spot should have produced the first authors of the Parthian and 
Turkish empires. At the head, or in the rear, of a Carizmian army, Soli- 
man Shah was drowned in the passage of the Euphrates; his son, Ortho- 
grul, became the soldier and subject of Aladian, and established a Surgut 
on the banks of the Sangar, a camp of four hundred families or tents, whom 
he governed fifty-two years, both in peace and war. He was the father of 
Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has been meted into the appel- 
lation of the caliph Othman ; and if we describe that pastoral chief as a 
shepherd and a robber, we must separate from these characters all idea of 
ignominy and baseness. Othman possessed, and perhaps surpassed, the 
ordinary virtues of a soldier; and the circumstances of time and place were 
propituous to his indepencence and success. The Seljukian dynasty was 
no more; and the distance and decline of the Mogul Khans soon enfran- 
chised him from the control of a superior. He was situate on the verge of 
the Greek empire ; the Koran sanctified his gazi, or holy war, against the 
infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, 
and invited him to descend into the plains of Bithynia. Till the reign of 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 331 

Palseologus, these passes had been vigilantly guarded by militia of the 
country, who were repaid by their own safety and exemption from taxes. 
The emperor abolished their privileges and assumed their office; but the 
tribute was rigorously collected, the custody of the pass ;s was neglected, 
and the hardy mountaineers degenerated into a trembling crowd of peas- 
ants, without spirit or discipline. It was on the twenty-seventh of July, in 
the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Chistian era, that Othman 
first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the 
date seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of 
the monster. The annals of the twenty-seven years of his reign would ex- 
hibit a repetition of the same inroads ; and hereditary troops were multi- 
plied in each campaign by the accession of captives and volunteers. Instead 
of retreating to the hills, he maintained the most useful and defensive posts, 
fortified the towns and castles which he had first pillaged, and renounced 
the pastoral life for the baths and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was 
not till Othman was oppressed by age and infirmities that he received the 
welcome news of the conquest of Prusa, which had been surrendered by 
famine or treachery to the arms of his son Orchan. The glory of Othman 
is chiefly founded on that of his descendants; but the Turks have tran- 
scribed or composed a royal testament of his last counsels of justice and 
moderation. From the conquest of Prusa we may date the true sera of the 
Ottoman empire. In the above sketch we have the origin of the Ottoman 
empire very distinctly stated; also the twenty-seven years' reign of Oth- 
man, its first Sultan : and, what we desire the reader more especially to note, 
the first effort to depose from the office of custodian of the national high-ways 
between Europe and Asia the Greek emperor who had then held that position 
for many centuries, but who, by luxury, was becoming incompetent to the 
proper discharge of his duties. As we have stated, the first effort at deposi- 
tion was an attack upon the Greek territory of Nicomedia, July 27, 1299, 
A, D. Nice was taken A. D. 1330, and Nicomedia in 1339. These acts of 
deposing the Greek emperors, after continuing through a series of 123 years, 
to May 29, 1453, closed when Constantinople surrendered to her new 
custodian, who has held the position to the present time. 

The events of those one hundred and twenty years are most intensely 
interesting since they narrate the triumph of the Cresent over the Cross, or 
Mohammedanism over apostate Christianity, over the apostacy held and 
practiced by the Greek church. During this period the Sultans were: (1) 
Othman, (2) Orchan, (3) Amurath first, (4) Bajazet, (5) Soliman, (6) Amur- 
ath II., (7) Mohammed II. (1) Othman's reign of twenty-seven years has 
been given. It was under his reign that the first attack upon the Grecian 
empire of Constantinople was made. They were purely introductory, yet 
successful. His son Orchan succeeded to his throne, which was located in 
the territory of the Greek empire, which was situated during this period at 
Prusa. This town is the modern Broussa, or Boursa, where the kings of 
Bithynia usually resided, in latitude 40° north and longtitude 27° east. 
This city (now containing a population of 75,000 souls) was made and con- 
tinued to be the capital of the Ottoman empire till the fall of Constantino- 
ple, May 29, 1453. 



332 THE EASTEKN QUESTION, 

The national theatre of the operations of these seven deposing Sultans 
was in Asia and Europe, within a circle whose centre was Constantinople, 
and whose diameter was, perhaps, not over three hundred miles. Their 
aim was well known to the Greek emperors, yet they were without any 
adequate means to fortify their city and empire against its change of cus- 
todians. Othman, with his 400 Turkman families, had, as he moved west- 
ward, been joined by many volunteer Turks, and by the fragments of the 
Seljukian or the second Turkish empire. His army was made up of Shep- 
herd horsemen, who followed him without pay, and rushed into battle w*ith- 
out any discipline. They were not drilled to occupy any fixed locality. 
123 years of military and civil training were required to fit the Turkish 
family for their new and responsible office of gate-keepers of Europe. Dur- 
ing these years the Turks were t'he constant associates of the Greeks. They 
became familiar with their manners and customs and with their refine- 
ment without being corrupted by their luxuries. They could imitate that 
which was good and avoid the evil. Othman made some progress toward 
enlarging and consolidating his empire. His subjects being composed of 
such a variety of discordant elements it required the efforts of his life to 
unify his empire. 

His son Orchan, when succeeding to the throne, found much that re- 
mained to be accomplished in order to secure the efficiency of his empire. 
The efforts of Orchan to build up his own empire out of Grecian elements 
and discipline, and civilize his own people, require special notice, since 
they very distinctly illustrate Turkish policy. 

Orchan began his work on his own capital, Prusa, or Brusa, or Boursa, 
the ancient Capital of Bithynia, a city located about sixty miles south ot 
Constantinople, facing a beautiful and luxuriant plain, covered for many 
miles with plantations of mulberry trees. The city and suburbs are six 
miles in circumference. The bazaars are well supplied with European 
goods from Constantinople. There are many mosques, some of which are 
very fine buildings. This city, under the labors of Orchan (who took the 
•city from the Greeks, A. D. 1356), soon put on the dress of a Moham- 
medan capital. Instead of Christian churches and Christian institutions of 
learning, Mohammedan mosques, colleges and hospitals adorned the city. 
Such was the note of the college faculties that Persian and Arabian stu- 
dents were attracted from the ancient schools of Oriental learning. The 
office of vizier (prime minister), next to the Sultan, was instituted for his 
brother Aladin. The Seljukian coins had the stamp of the new empire. He 
instituted new habits of dress; one for the citizen, another for the peasant, 
also for the Moslems and for the infidels. 

Orchan's next attempt was the formation of a standing army. This 
was no ordinary task. There was no drilled infantry. A great number of 
volunteers was enrolled, having some pay, yet, with the privilege of living 
at home, except when called into active duty. The Turks themselves, 
owing to their former mode of living, were refractory, and their manners 
rude, — opposed to any strict discipline. Their want of fitness induced 
Orchan to educate his young Christian captives, Ashis soldiers and those of 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 333 

the prophet; but the Turkish peasants were still allowed to mount on horse- 
back, and follow his standard, with the appellation and hopes of "free- 
booters." By these means he reformed and drilled an army of twenty-five 
thousand Moslems. Battering engines were fornfed for sieges, first successfully 
used against Nice and Nicomedia. Under the reign of Orchan the Janizaries 
(Yengi cheri, or new soldiers) were formed and from the following circum- 
stances : The vizier reminded Orchan, his sovereign, that Mohammedan 
laws allowed the Sultan to appropriate to his own use one-fifth of the 
spoils and captives; it was said by the vizier, that faithful ofiEicers, stationed 
at Gallipoli, might easiiy make the levy, by selecting of the passengers, the 
stoutest and most beautiful of the Christian youth. The suggestion pleased 
Orchan ; and many thousands of the European captives were educated in 
religion and arms; and the new militia was consecrated and named by a 
celebrated dervis. Standing in front of their ranks, he stretched the sleeve 
of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was 
given in these words : " Let them be called Janizaries; may their counte- 
nance be ever bright ! their hand victorious ; their sword keen ! may their 
spear always hang over the heads of their enemies! and wheresoever they 
go, may they return with a white face." These Janizaries were a terror to 
the nations. The Janizaries, educated to war and in the Mohammedan 
creed, fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous country- 
men (Greek Christians) ; and in the battle of Cossova, the league and in- 
dependence of the Slavonian tribes was finally destroyed. 

Orchan's conduct towards Christians was, under all circumstances, 
severe. Christians, were allowed, however, to redeem their lives and 
property by payment of a large sum. 

Orchan married Theodora, the daughter of Cantacuzene, the Greek 
emperor ; but it was under the most solemn protestations that he would 
invariably fulfill the duties of a subject and a son. Theodora was allowed 
to hold her religion at Bursa; yet it is true that Orchan's friendship was 
subservient to his religion and interest, for, while he had a Christian wife, 
he still sold Christians into servitude to his own countrj^'men. ''A naked 
crowd of Christians, of both sexes and every age, of priests and monks, of 
matrons and virgins, was exposed in the public market; the whip was 
frequently used to quicken the charity of redemption ; and the indigent 
Greeks deplored the fate of their brethren, who were led away to the worst 
evils of temporal and spiritual bondage." Under the reign of Orchan the 
seven Churches of Asia were ruined. Ephesus fell among the first. Of 
these Churches Gibbon thus writes : " In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians 
deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of 
the Revelations ; the desolation is complete, and the temple of Diana, or 
the Church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. 
The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with 
wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of 
Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira 
and Pergamus ; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign 
trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved 



334 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the em- 
perors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended 
their religion and freedom above four-score years ; and at length capitulated 
with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and 
Churches of Asia, Philadelphia (now called Ala-Shehr — exalted city) is 
still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example that the paths 
of honor and safety may sometimes be the same." Soliman assisted his 
father Orchan in gaining a firm footing in Europe. At the head of ten 
thousand horse he was transported in the vessels, and entertained as the 
friend of the Greek emperor. He assisted the Greeks in their civil wars in 
Roumania; yet, not without promoting Ottoman interests to the detriment 
of Greek success. The peninsula of Gallipoli was filled with a Turkish 
colony, and the fortresses of Thrace were occupied. The restitution of these 
fortresses was solicited by the emperor. Their ransom was finally fixed at 
sixty thousand crowns ($75,000). The first payment had been made when 
an earthquake shook the walls and provinces ; the dismantled places were 
occupied by the Turks; and Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was re- 
built and repeopled by the policy of Soliman. Cantacuzene, abdicating the 
Byzantine throne, the domestic alliance was dissolved. His advice to his 
people was, in their weakness not to contend with the number, valor, dis- 
cipline, and enthusiasm of the Moslems. This prudent counsel was rejected. 
As Soliman practised in the field the exercise of the jerid, he was killed 
by a fall from his horse; and the aged Orchan, in the 75th year of his age, 
and the 35th of his reign expired on the tomb of his valiant and beloved 
son. Amurath First, immediately succeeded his father and brother. Be- 
fore we commence the history of Amurath, it is well to pause a moment 
and consider the nature and bearings of Orchan's reign, and the future 
mission of the Ottoman empire. 

It is truly interesting to follow the Turkman famil}'- from their no- 
madic home in northeastern Asia, in the camp, in the city, and in the open 
plain, till we see them gathering around and occupying all the vicinities 
of Constantinople, preparatory to the permanent occupancy of the city of 
the " golden horn " in southeastern Europe. First, the capital of their 
nationality was a royal camp at the foot of the Altai mountains, in a high 
northern latitude, facing the vast Siberian wilds. Their empire was com- 
posed principally of wild Turko-Scythian shepherds, who revolted at every 
move towards fixed civilization. It is truly wonderful that God should 
select such a savage nomadic family to be the future custodian of the great 
national highways of the enlightened world; and still more remarkable 
that He should commit to that family, for many centuries, the exclusive 
guardianship of His special localities, more particularly the land of Israel. 
God had resolved that the land of promise, previous to its perpetual occu- 
pancy by Israel under His Son, should have its Sabbath. "What people 
are better adapted to that position ? In tilling the soil what two families 
could occupy wider extremes than the Turk and the German ; the former 
to hold dominion of the land during its sabbaths of rest ; the latter to pos- 
sess it under the beauties of a bride adorned for her husband. We use the 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 335 

term German in its generic sense, including the Anglo-Saxon race as well 
as the principal families of western Europe. The second Turkish national 
centre was in northern Persia. Here they entered the school of prepara- 
tory training. They occupy the latitude though further south ; yet, with 
a climate well adapted to that of their future European residence. In their 
Persian capital (Nishapur, in a beautiful and fertile valley) they took their 
first lessons of luxury and Persian refinement. They changed their re- 
ligion and mode of life. They became zealous converts of Islamism which 
they have advocated to the present time. Why Mohammedanism should 
travel eastward, and Christianity towards the North and West, are ques- 
tions which deserve investigation. Christianity has followed the course of 
empires, the four horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 
We do not say that Christianity and Mohammedanism did not push 
towards other cardinal points, but simply, that these were their prevalent 
courses. This we can say, Christianity has never been the religion of the 
Turks and Arabians, nor Mohammedanism that of the Anglo-Saxons, or 
the children of Isaac. When the time came that apostate Christianity 
was to receive the vials of divine wrath, the executioner moved westward 
towards the place of execution. 

The third capital of the Turkmans was in Anatolia, at Prusa or 
Brousa, the ancient chief residence of the kings of Bithynia. This pro- 
vince included that part of Asia adjoining Constantinople, and was evi- 
dently selected for the purpose of becoming familiar with Greek learning, 
manners and customs, preparatory to the occupancy of their capital and 
the discharge of the same ofl&cial functions. The Sultan Orchan married 
into the imperial family, being son-in-law to the emperor. He visited the 
emperor, received visits in return, and was on terms of great familiarity. 
He had every opportunity of learning the weakness of the Greek empire. 
His conquests in Europe became very considerable. Under Orchan the 
Greek empire was circumscribed by the Ottoman power; an empire within 
the embraces of another empire, ready to seize upon its capital and depose 
it from the office of custodian. Though Orchan married a Christian prin- 
cess, and. in the marriage contract, bound himself to allow Theodora to 
hold to the free exercise of her own religion in the harem, still he was a 
strict believer in and defender of the doctrines of the Koran. He claimed 
the privilege of selling captive Christians into debasing servitude. He 
reigned supreme over his subjects, and evidently aimed at- the subversion 
of the only system in the East that professed Christianity. It was the 
crescent striving to supplant the cross in the eastern proud capital of the 
Csesars. 

Orchan aimed to imitate, in learning and dress, the nationality that he 
was desiring to destroy. The Ottoman empire, under the reign of its 
second Sultan, drew its cordon around Constantinople, and gradually 
lessened its area. Still, he acted under the guise of a friend, and by mar- 
riage as a dutiful son. 

Let the reader contrast the Ottoman or the third Turkish empire under 
Orchan, and he will be surprised that so few centuries with a change of 



336 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

country have radically been made over the family that formed the first or 
Turko-Scythian empire. A family of shepherds without any fixed habita- 
tions, dwelling in movable tents, in patriarchal style now dwells in a 
country, rich in its agricultural products, and abounding with villages, 
towns and populous cities, adorned with mosques, colleges, and royal hospi- 
tals. The first empire refuses to erect any of the usual monuments of civi- 
lization, the third empire makes use of every human means to get possession 
of the most luxurious capital of Christendom. Who cannot discern the 
hand of Deity in these mighty revolutions ? May it not again be said, for 
this purpose have I raised thee up and brought thee around this great 
capital of Christian apostacy, that I may show forth in thee my great 
power and my retributive justice? 

The military operations of Amurath I. were confined to Europe ; and 
at Adrianople he fixed his. European capital; the chief seat of justice and 
religion. Amurath was mild in his temper,. modest in his apparel, and a 
lover of learning and virtue ; yet so inattentive to public worship that, as 
a punishment, one of the mufti (judges) rejected his testimony in a civil 
cause. These features were adapted to the time and worth of the Ottoman 
mission. He subjugated the province of Roumania (Thrace) from the Hel- 
lespont to Mount Hsemus, and vicinity of the great city. By his new capi- 
tal at Adrianople, and his Asiatic capital at Bursa in Bithynia, Gibbon 
thus speaks! "Constantinople, whose decline is almost coeval with her 
foundation, had often, in the lapse of a thousand years, been assaulted by 
the barbarians of the East and West ; but never till this fatal hour had the 
Greeks been surrounded, both in Asia and Europe, by the arms of the same 
hostile monarchy. Yet the prudence or generosity of Amurath postponed 
for a while this easy conquest ; and his pride was satisfied with the fre- 
quent and humble attendance of the emperor, John Palseologus, and his 
four sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp of the Otto- 
man prince." His military contests were with the Bulgarians, Servians, 
Bosnians, and Albanians ; Slavonian nations residing between the Danube 
and the Adriatic Sea. These lands did not abound in gold and silver; 
nor were they occupied with cultivated citizens of Grecian stamp; but they 
were peopled by a hardy race of warriors, such as would be of great service, 
we may say, absolutely necessary to the Turks in the office of custodian ; 
for, such was the rapidly growing power of Russia, that to hold such a re- 
sponsible station, for a series of years, required great national vigor in the 
immediate vicinities of Constantinople. The feebleness of the Greek em- 
pire and its inability to hold back the empire of the north, and confine it 
to its legitimate field, the frozen north, caused its removal from the office of 
custodian and the inauguration of another nationality competent to the 
the work. Henceforth, from the days of Amurath I., we shall expect to 
see a rapid growth and consolidation of the Ottoman power in Europe, and 
its concentration about Constantinople. These Slavonians, by the forma- 
tion of the Janizaries, were converted into the firmest and the most faith- 
ful supporters of the Ottoman supremacy. Let us follow this European 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 337 

growth that we may have a clear understanding of the Divine purposes in 
rearing up, educating, and sustaining the Ottoman empire. ^ ^ 

Amurath I. reigned from A. D. 1356 to A. D. 1389, when he was suc- 
ceeded by liis son, Bajazet I., who was a Sultan of varied fortune. His 
character surnamed him Ilerim, the lightning. His fiery energy and the 
rapidity of his desolating pathway, made the appellation appropriate. 
During the fourteen years of his reign, at the head of his armies he was- 
constantly marching between his capitals, Brousa in Asia, and Adrianopl©- 
in Europe ; or from the Danube to the Euphrates. A pretended disciple of 
the supremacy of law he invaded, with impartial ambition, the Christian 
and Mohammedan princes of Europe and Asia. Bajazet reduced Anatolia, 
with its numerous emirs, to his authority; and after the conquest of Icon- 
ium, the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman 
dynasty. The conquests of Bajazet in Europe were equally rapid. The 
Servians and Bulgarians being subdued he passed the Danube and entered 
the heart of Moldavia, and took from the Greek empire the remaining frag- 
ments of Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly. He entered Greece and made 
conquests ; stationed a fleet of galleys at Gallipoli to keep open his com- 
munication between Europe and Asia, to command the Hellespont and in- 
tercept Latin successors of Constantinople. The Greek empire was re- 
duced to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, 
about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, thecity of Constantinople 
representing the wealth and populousness of the kingdom. Even this 
fragment of a kingdom was divided between two rivals. His conflicts with 
Hungary were the most severe, since Sigismond, their king, was connected 
with the Christian kings of the West. In the battle of Nicopoli, Bajazet 
defeated a confederate army of a hundred thousand Christians, who had 
proudly boasted that if the sky should fall they could uphold it on their 
lances. Bajazet threatened that he could besige Buda; subdue the adjacent 
countries of Germany and Italy ; and that he would feed his horse with a 
bushel of oats on the altar of St. Peter at Rome. His course was arrested 
by a fit of the gout. Such is the weakness of the mightiest conquerors 
when about to transcend their Divine mission. Three European countries 
have been kept from the Mohammedan : (1) Italy, (2) France, (3) and Ger- 
many, (4) and also, the British Islands. Some may call it an accident 
that Charles Martel defeated Saracens in the middle of France. It is well 
to observe that this victory was gained, after seven days of hard fighting, 
by the aid of the Gepidae and Germans. The German race has always been 
too powerful for the Arabian and Mongolian races. In this conflict Europe, 
Asia, and Africa decided the destiny of the world, whether it was to bow 
to the "Crescent "or "Cross." Whenever a test battle came off the cross 
had the advantage, the reason is obvious; the future destinies of God's, 
ancient people were involved. 

Bajazet, after his defeat of the union army, returned and gathered his 

force to the siege of Constantinople. An easy conquest was anticipated. 

In proud thought Bajazet was already master of the city of the "Goldeu 

Horn," and through it, of the Greek empire; little anticipating his fate 

22 



338 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

in the near future. He founded a cadi (judgeship) and a royal mosque 
in the metropolis of the Eastern or Greek Church. In the midst of the 
siege, Bajazet received a letter from Timour, the Mongul conqueror, de- 
manding, in language, very insulting, the surrender of the Sultan, to his 
authority, as the Supreme Lord and governor of the world. This insult 
was too much for the haughty Turk that had seen no superior. During 
the two years of Timour's delay, Bajazet was mustering and disciplining 
his immense forces. They met on the plains of Angola, their armies, 
jointly, composed of nearly one million, principally of cavalry. The 
troops of Bajazet failed him in the decisive moment, and he, afflicted 
with the gout in his hands and feet, was made a prisoner. So fell this 
Turkish Sultan. He was confined in an iron cage and followed the camp 
of the proud Tamerlane towards Samarcand. This terrible defeat of the 
Ottoman army delayed the fall of Constantinople half a century. The 
Tartar victory passed over the Ottoman empire like a devastating cyclone ; 
for, though Timour passed out of its territory and soon perished on his 
march for the conquest of China, the resources of the empire, both in men 
and money, were somewhat exhausted, and they were unable to hold their 
advanced position in the siege of the city of the Eastern Csesars. Bajazet 
and Timour were both the disciples of the Koran, and were simply contest- 
ing the empire of the world. Neither could bear a rival. Such was the 
haughty pride of the Turkish Sultan, that a fall was necessary to place the 
Ottoman power in its proper position. He was taught the lesson of Ne- 
buchadnezzar when he said, " Is not this great Babylon that I have built 
for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor 
of my majesty ?" While the word (was) in the king's mouth there fell a 
voice from heaven (saying), " O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken ; 
thy kingdom is departed from thee." Dan. iv. 30-32. As a servant of the 
Most High, Bajazet had arrogated to himself too much authority.- It was 
necessary, therefore, that he should be humbled, even at the expense of 
his throne and his life. 

Soliman, his son, succeeded to the Ottoman throne and reigned eight 
years, and was slain by his brother Mousa. " The investiture of Mousa de- 
graded him as the slave of the Monguls ; his tributary kingdom of Ana- 
tolia was confined within a narrow limit, nor could his broken militia and 
empty treasure contend with the hardy and veteran bands of the sovereign 
of Roumania. Mousa fled in disguise from the palace of Boursa ; traversed 
the Propontis in an open boat ; wandered over the Walachian and Servian 
hills ; and, after some vain attempts, ascended the throne of Adrianople, so 
recently stained with the blood of Soliman." — Gibbon. In a reign of 3^ 
years Mousa was successful against the Christians of Hungary and the 
Morea, but he was ruined by his timorous conduct and unseasonable clem- 
ency. Resigning the sovereignty of Anatolia, he fell a victim to the per- 
fidy of his ministers, and the superior ascendant of his brother Moham- 
med. Eight years was the Mohammedan Sultan over Roumania and Ana- 
tolia. Duri'ng these years he was occupied in restoring the unity of the 
Ottoman empire. He appointed two viziers to oversee the education of his 



OTTOMAN 'phase. 339 

son, Amurath II.; one of whom (Bajazet) was slain by the impostor Mus- 
tapha ; the other (Ibrahim) extinguished the rebellion occasioned by the 
pretenders to the throne of Bajazet, and secured the unity of the empire. 

These conflicts were occasioned by the rivalry between their Asiatic 
capital, Brousa, and their European capital, Adrianople. After the fall of 
Bajazet his sons had separate parts of the Ottoman empire. Roumania 
and Anatolia had each its Sultan ; yet the most noble of the Turks con- 
tended for the unity of the empire. A moment's thought will make it 
clear that the unity of the Ottoman empire was an element necessary to 
enable that family to act as the custodian of the Eastern highways, since 
the position required the united strength of a great empire to hold 
back the growing power of the north. For about twelve years three sons 
of Bajazet governed each a separate part of the empire. It was united 
under his son Mohammed, A. D. 1413. Before Bajazet's captivity this 
youth had been placed in the government of Amasia, at a distance from 
Constantinople. This castle was considered impregnable; and the city 
of Amasia, on both banks of the river Iris, was built in the form of an 
amphitheatre, and was a miniature image of Bagdad on the Tigris. Timour 
in his terrible overthrow of Anatolia, had overlooked this obscure corner 
of that unfortunate country. Here Mohammed maintained his obscure 
independence. During the contests of his more powerful brothers, Soliman 
and Mousa, he remained neutral ; but on the fall of Soliman and triumph 
of Mousa, he came for thus the heir and avenger of the unfortunate Soli- 
man. He finally succeeded, in an eight years' reign, in combining the 
fragments of the Ottoman empire, and securely held Gallipoli, the key of 
Europe. The approaches to Constantinople, by sea, east and west, were in 
the hands of the Ottoman Turks. During the reign of Mohammed, Man- 
ual, the Greek emperor, was respected, who made him the guardian of his 
two sons. This act offended the national honor and religion of the Turks, 
and the divan unanimously pronounced that the royal youths should never 
be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog (as they 
called the Greek emperor). 

Amurath II. succeeded his father, A. D. 1422. His conquests in Europe 
were of considerable note. He took Salonica and destroyed all its inhab- 
itants, invaded and subdued Servia, putting to death all before him ; 
entered Transylvania, ravaging the country and vanquishing the natives, 
and acted the same victorious parts in Wallachia. He gained the famous 
battle of Varnia, in which Ladislaus, King of Hungary, was slain. Amur- 
ath was less successful against Scanderberg, Prince of Epirus. The reign of 
Amurath, on the whole, was one of progression to the Othmans. The aim of 
the Ottomans was conquest of the Greek empire, and the occupancy of 
the City of Constantinople. Amurath besieged the city, but failed in his 
efforts. A crowd of volunteers came from Asia, desiring to share in the 
religious merit of subduing the City of the Cassars. Their military ardor 
was inflamed by the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females. After 
a siege of two months Amurath was recalled to Brousa by a domestic 
revolt, occasioned by Greek treachery, and was soon extinguished by the 



340 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

death of a guiltless brother. While he led his Janizaries to new con- 
quests in Europe and Asia, the Byzantine empire was indulged in a servile 
and precarious rest for thirty years. Manuel died, and John Palseologus 
was allowed to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers (15,000£), 
and the loss of almost all of his possessions beyond the suburbs of Con- 
stantinople. The following remarks of Gibbon deserve attention, who 
describes without seeing God in history. 

" In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish empire, the first 
merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal qualities of the Sultans ; 
since, in human life, the most important scenes will depend on the charac- 
ter of a single actor. By some shades of widsom and virtue, they may be 
discriminated from each other ; but, except in a single instance, a period of 
nine reigns and two hundred and sixty-five years is occupied from the elava- 
tion of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare series of warlike and 
active princes, who impressed their subjects with obedience and their 
enemies with terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, the 
heirs of royalty were educated in the council and the field; from early 
youth they were intrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces 
and armies, and this manly institution, which was often productive of civil 
war, must have essentially contributed to the discipline and vigor of the 
monarchy. The Ottomans can not style themselves, like the Arabian 
caliphs, the descendants or successors of the apostle of God ; and the kindred 
which they claim with the Tartar Khans of the house of Zingis appears to 
be founded in flattery rather than in truth. Their origin is obscure ; but 
their sacred and indefeasible right, which no time can erase, and no vio- 
lence can infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of 
their subjects. A weak or vicious Sultan may be deposed and strangled, 
but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot; nor has the most dar- 
ing rebel presumed to ascend the throne of his lawful Sovereign. 

While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually subverted 
by a crafty vizier in the palace, or a victorious general in the camp, the 
Ottoman succession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries, 
and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation. 
To the spirit and constitution of that nation a strong and singular influence 
may, however, be ascribed." The following sketch of the Turkish educa- 
tion and discipline comes principally from Ricaut's State of the Ottoman 
empire. It has too direct a bearing on our subject to allow it to be omitted: 
"The primitive subjects of Othman were the four hundred families of 
wandering Turkmans, who had followed his ancestors from the Oxus to the 
Sangar; and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with the white and 
black tents of their rustic brethren. But this original drop was dissolved 
in the mass of voluntary and vanquished subjects, who, under the name 
of Turks, are united by the common ties of religion, language and man- 
ners. In the cities, from Urzeroum to Belgrade, the national appellation 
is common to all Moslems, the first and most honorable inhabitants; 
but they have abandoned, at least in Roumania, the villages and the culti- 
vation of the land to the Christian peasants. In the vigorous age of the 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 341 

Ottoman government the Turks were themselves excluded from all civil 
and military honors ; and a servile class, an artificial people, was raised by 
the discipline of education to obey, to conquer, and to command. From 
the time of Orchan and the first Amurath, the Sultans were persuaded that 
a government of the sword must be renewed in each generation with new 
soldiers; and that such soldiers must be sought, not in effeminate Asia, 
but among the hardy and warlike natives of Europe. The provinces of 
Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Servia became the perpetual 
seminary of the Turkish army ; and when the royal fifth of the captives 
was diminished by conquest, an inhuman tax of the fifth child, or every 
fifth year, was rigorously levied on the Christian families. At the age of 
twelve or fourteen years the most robust youth were torn from their 
parents, their names were enrolled in a book, and from that moment they 
were clothed, taught and maintained for public service. According to the 
promise of their appearance they were selected for the royal schools of 
Boursa, Pera and Adrianople, intrusted to the care of bashaws, or dispersed 
in the houses of the Anatolian peasantry. It was the first care of their 
masters to instruct in the Turkish language ; their bodies were exercised by 
every labor that could fortify their strength ; they learned to wrestle, to 
leap, to run, to shoot with the bow, and afterwards with the musket, till 
they were drafted into the chambers and companies of the Janizaries, and 
severely trained in the military or monastic discipline of the order. The 
youths most conspicuous for birth, talents and beauty were admitted into 
the inferior class of Argia moglans, or the more liberal rank of Ichoglans, of 
whom the former was attached to the palace, and the latter to the person of 
the prince. In four successive schools, under the rod of the white eunuchs, 
the arts of horsemanship and of darting the javelin were their daily exer- 
cise, while those of a more studious cast applied themselves to the study of 
the Koran and the knowledge of the Arabic and Persian tongues. As they 
advanced in seniority and merit, they were gradually dismissed to military, 
civil, and even ecclesiastical employments: the longer their stay, the higher 
was their expectation, till, at a mature period, they were admitted into the 
number of the forty ages, who stood before the Sultan, and were promoted 
by his choice to the government of provinces and the first honors of the 
empire. Such a mode of institution was admirably adapted to the form 
and spirit of a despotic monarchy. The ministers and generals were, in the 
strictest sense, the slaves of the emperor, to whose bounty they were 
indebted for their instruction and support. When they left the Seraglio, 
and suffered their beards to grow as the symbol of enfranchisement, they 
found themselves in an important oflice, without fraction or friendship, 
without parents and without heirs, dependent on the hand which had raised 
them from the dust, and which, on the slightest displeasure, could break in 
pieces these statues of glass, as they were aptly termed by the Turkish prov- 
erb. In the slow and painful steps of education, their characters and talents 
were unfolded to a discerning eye : the man, naked and alone, was reduced 
to the standard of his personal merit; and, if the sovereign had wisdom to 
choose, he possessed a pure and boundless liberty of choice. The Ottoman 



342 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

candidates were trained by the virtue of abstinence to those efFections by 
the habits of submission to those of command. A similar spirit was 
diffused among the troops; and their science and sobriety, their patience 
and modesty, have extorted the reluctant praise of their Christian enemies. 
Nor can the victory be doubtful if we compare the discipline and exercise of 
the Janizaries with the pride of birth, the independence of chivalry, the 
ignorance of the new levies, the mutinous temper of the veterans, and the 
vices of intemperance and disorder which so long contaminated the armies 
of Europe. 

During the reign of Amurath II. the Otto wan empire recovered its 
unity and power, and had gathered its forces around Constantinople, ready 
to commence the siege preparatory to assuming the duties of the national 
custodian. The Greek empire had within its Capital a new element of 
great power, gun-powder. Had it made a proper use of that enemy, its 
life might still have been spared for some years. The secret of its compo- 
sition and use, though originated by Christian Europe (some give it to 
the Chinese), was betrayed to the Turks, who made use of it for the 
overthrow of the great city. 

Amurath II, was succeeded by his son, Mohammed 11., A. D. 1451, 
who was called "the greatest warrior of all the Turkish Sultans." 
The taking of Constantinople has rendered his name immortal. Till 
that work was accomplished he was simply a man of one idea: "How 
can I take Constantinople?" This one thought haunted him day and 
night. "At the dead of night, about the second watch, he started from his 
bed and commanded the instant presence of his prime vizier. The message, 
the hour, the prince, and his own situation, alarmed the guilty conscience 
of Calil Basha, who had possessed the confidence, and advised the restora- 
tion of Amurath (who had resigned to his son). On the accession of the 
son the vizier was confirmed in his office and the appearances of favor; but 
the veteran statesman was not insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery 
ice, which might break under his footsteps and plunge him the abyss. His 
friendship for Christians, which might be innocent under the late reign, had 
stigmatized him with the name of Gabour — Ortachi, or foster-brother of the 
infidels (Christians — W.); and his avarice entertained a venal and treasona- 
ble correspondence, which was detected after the conclusion of the war. On 
receiving the roj'al mandate he embraced, perhaps for the last time, his wife 
and children; filled a cup with pieces of gold, hastened to the palace, 
adored the Sultan, and offered, according to the oriental custom, the slight 
tribute of duty and his gratitude. ' It is not my wish,' said Mohammed, ' to 
resume my gifts, but rather to heap and multiply them on thy head. In my 
turn I ask a present far more valuable and important — Constantinople.' 
As soon as the vizier had recovered from his surprise, ' The same God,' said 
he, 'who has already given thee so large a portion of the Roman empire 
will not deny the remnant and the capital. His providence and thy power 
assure thy success ; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful slaves, will 
sacrifice our lives and fortunes.' ' Lala ' (or preceptor), continued the Sul- 
tan, ' do you see this pillow ? All the night in my agitation I have pulled 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 343 

it on, one side and the other; I have arisen from my bed, again have I lain 
down; yet sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Beware of the gold and 
silver of the Romans; in arms we are superior; and with the aid of God 
and the prayers of the prophets we shall speedily become masters of Con- 
stantinople.' To sound the disposition of his soldiers he often wandered 
through the streets alone and in disguise, and it was fatal to discover the 
Sultan when he wanted to escape from the vulgar eye." — Gibbon. 

His time was occupied in drawing plans of the city, in conversing 
with his engineers and generals, as to the best localities and modes of at- 
tack ; where he should erect his batteries ; on which side assault the walls ; 
where spring the mines; to what place he should apply his scaling-ladders; 
and the exercises of the day carried out and proved the plans of his sleep- 
less nights. Such were the divine workings on the mind of this Ottoman 
Cyrus. 

The recent gunpowder discovery of the Latins he studied with intense 
interest, that he might know how to use it in the opening siege. A Dacian 
who had deserted to the Moslems, was asked by Mohammed if he was able 
to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to 
batter the walls of Constantinople ? to which he replied : " I am not igno- 
rant of their strength ; but were they more solid than those of Babylon, I 
could oppose an engine of superior power ; the position and management 
of that engine must be left to your engineers." On this assurance, a 
foundry was erected at Adrianople; the metal was prepared, and at the 
end of three months Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupen- 
dous, and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve palms is as- 
signed to the bore ; and the stone bullet weighed about six hundred pounds. 
With this immense cannon the walls of Constantinople were broken. 
Mohammed began his work of siege in early spring (April 6) and took the 
city May 29, A. D. 1453. The taking of Constantinople gave to Moham- 
med II. the title of Bujuk (the Great). His army consisted of 258,000 
men and a fleet of 320 vessels. 

Mohammed made Constantinople his capital. He sought to win back 
the inhabitants by promising them the free exercise of their religion. At 
this point of Ottoman history it is well to pause for the purpose of noting 
certain remarkable features that transpired between their royal encamp- 
ment, at the base of the golden mountains in distant northeastern Asia, 
and the inauguration into the office of Custodian of the national highways 
at Constantinople A. D. 1453. There exists a striking parallel between the 
education of the Medo-Persians under Cyrus for the overthrow of the As- 
syrian empire and the fall of Babylon, and that of the Turkish empire to 
conquer the Greek empire and Constantinople its capital. The Turkish 
drill was, however, vastly more extended and complicated. The Turkish 
training covers a space of nearly one thousand years, and includes three 
imperial administrations, (1) the Turko-Scythian, (2) the Seljukian, (3) 
the Ottoman. 

These, though all Turanian Turks, originally had each its distinct 
central locality, its distinct training and distinct national character; yet 



344 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

there can be seen a unity of purpose in the mind of the Great Supreme. 
God was evidently drilling a people for a specific mission. Foreseeing that 
the Greek empire through its luxurious effeminacy would not be able to 
hold back the great northern empire to the nomadic zone, so that the 
sacred locality might be kept in reserve for the future nationality of His 
people, He resolved to raise up a new empire, educated for and fully en- 
dowed with such attributes as would be required to be (a) guardian, visible 
of the holy land, while enjoying her sabbath; (6) a wall of defense against 
the southern encroachments of the North, Gog, or Russia ; (c) to be custo- 
dian of the great national highways between the East and West ; (d) and 
to execute the judgments of the Almighty on the eastern division of the 
great apostacy ; (e) and finally, to have such national vigor as to hold said 
positions till such a time as the king of the South be in such a position as 
to be able to aid her, and finally to release her from her national responsi- 
bilities. These five points must be kept constantly in view, if the divinity 
of Turkish character is to be understood. On the 29th of May, 433 years 
ago, the Ottoman empire was inducted into the office of European gate- 
keeper at Constantinople. That office it has executed to the present time. 
God took a man from Iran to overthrow the Babylonian empire, and a man 
from Turan to subjugate the latter Greek empire. We have traced the 
Turkman in his movements and nationalities till the day of his inaugura- 
tion. This we denominate the era of Turkman minority ; from the time 
of the induction into the office of custodian to the present, 1886-7, is the 
era of the Ottoman or Turkman's official reign. , 

It will be a matter of great interest to trace that empire through its 
official era, that we may learn the manner in which it has discharged its 
mission. How has that empire discharged the duties of guardian and cus- 
todian ? It must attain to sufficient vigor as to prevent the encroachments 
of the north on the free exercise of her official functions, till the British 
empire is ready to aid and protect her in her arduous duties. Before we 
examine the Ottoman official reign, it is well to trace some of the elements 
of Ottoman power at the time of its inauguration. By so doing we shall 
discover the secret of his great vitality and physical vigor. The elements 
of Ottoman nationality were numerous and exceedingly varied. The 
strength of her army was principally Slavonian. The Turks were the 
nobles and chief rulers ; but their trained soldiery and many civil officers 
were Europeans, who emigrated from Asia in the third or Slavonian migra- 
tion, who dwelt in Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Albania, the southern part 
of which was the ancient Ipirus. Those countries were formerly called 
Thrace, Macedon, Illyricum, Moesia. The Slavonians had long been settled 
in those countries, and becoming integral parts of the Greek empire, had 
embraced the tenets of the Greek Christians. The movements of the Turks 
towards southeastern Europe was gradual, occupying not less than 150 
years. As the Hebrews were educated forty years in the wilderness, pre- 
paratory to entering upon their official duties in Palestine, in a similar 
naanner were the Ottomans under training for their future work in Egypt, 
Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Anatolia, and southeastern Europe. Their change 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 345 

of latitude from northeastern Asia to Media and northern Persia was the 
first progressive lesson. Their changes in modes of life in the second em- 
pire were exceedingly great ; a change of religion, habits of thought, phys- 
ical exercise, manners and customs, in their dwellings and occupations. 
Under the first empire they were nationalized nomads ; under the second 
empire they drew the marks and outlines of national civilization ; a very 
important change in a people designed to hold one of the most responsible 
stations among the enlightened nations of Europe and of the world ; for, 
whatever approbrious epithets may be applied to the Turkish nation, the 
Supreme Governor of the destinies of all empires has seen fit, in His all- 
wise arrangements, to place that power during 433 years in the most re- 
sponsible position on the globe. Why has He done it ? Simply, that the 
Ottoman family has best suited His great national purposes. No other im- 
perial family could have done as well. 

Their third imperial centre was situated nearly two degrees further 
north, but about twenty-two degrees further west, and about 60 mile south 
of Constantinople. In this third capital they gathered and united the 
fragments of the second empire. Here they were located within the 
Asiatic territory of the Greek empire. Here they took their first lessons 
in Grecian civilization. The Sultans married into the imperial family, and 
visited back and forth on terms of very considerable familiarity. They 
difiered most in their religious creeds, the one family being strictly disci- 
ples of the Koran, the other idolatrous Christians. The Ottoman Turks, 
by family associations were gradually introduced into Europe, took posses- 
sion of the city approaches, and finally established a European capital at 
Adrianople. From that time to the conquest of Constantinople their 
European possessions rapidly increased, and their armies were composed of 
Europeans inhabiting Roumania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Albania, and Rumelia. 
The Janizaries were at that time the most temperate and the best disci- 
plined soldiers in Europe and continued thus for a century. 

We give only so much of Turkish history as will enable the reader to 
discern its true mission. The Ottoman empire has its mission in compara- 
tively modern times, and, consequently, far this side of the completion of 
the Bible record. We do not expect to find the same minuteness as about 
Tyre and Babylon, still its destroying mission is very distinctly set forth 
in the Apocalypse, and we have reason for it, that it has been under the 
direct control and management of the Almighty, as perfectly as any of the 
great prophetic empires. What, therefore, the Ottoman empire has been 
officially, that God purposed it to be, and called out its elements and 
trained them for those specific purposes. Profane history records simply 
the past of peoples, tongues, families and empires, prophetic history de- 
scribes the same great events in advance. It describes things, agents, and 
actions that are not as if they were. Profane history is often very imper- 
fect. Prophetic never, since it is dictated by the Maker of history. 

In entering upon the investigation of the official history of the Otto- 
man empire, dating back to May 29, 1453, the day of its inauguration, we 
shall trace its principal acts and their bearing on its great national mis- 



346 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

sion. That it has a mission cannot be doubted ; what that mission is can 
be readily learned, as to its general features, by learning what it has ac- 
complished. Much has been said and written against the Turk and his 
empire. No opprobrious epithet has been too strong for men's (Chris- 
tian's!) tongues to utter. Expositors talk of the Turkman as a vile in- 
truder upon European territory, that he should be driven out of Europe 
and back to his native seat in northeastern Asia. The feeling of the cru- 
sades still exists among professed Christians. Expositors are eloquent 
when describing the pains of the " sick man," and the " drying up of the 
Euphrates," and seem earnestly desirous of such an event to transpire im- 
mediately. To such we would kindly propound the following among 
other questions that might be named. 

(1) If the Turk is driven out of Europe, what nation shall do it ? 

(2) What nation has a more legitimate right there than the Turk ? 

(3) Are not all European national families of Asiatic origin ? 

(4) Do they not hold their dominion by conquest ? 

(5) What right has Russia to Constantinople or European Turkey? 
What right has Austria or any other European nation ? 

(6) If the Turkish empire is removed, who but the Russian will do it ? 

(7) If Russia drives out the Turk, who but Russia will hold the land ? 

(8) If Russia holds her territory, would not Palestine fall to her ? 

(9) If Gog gets premature possession of Palestine, what will become of 
Jewish emigration and Jewish nationality ? 

(10) If the Jew cannot occupy European Russia, how can he erect a 
nation in the heart of the new Asiatic Russia? 

(11) Can Turkey fall without a previous universal war? 

(12) How can the Jews form a kingdom in the midst of desolating 
war? 

THE OFFICIAL REIGN OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FROM A. D. 1453 TO 1887. 

This period covers four centuries and thirty-three years of national his- 
tory — a period full of interesting events ; such as have had much to do in 
shaping the nationalities of Europe into their varied complications. 

(1) A remark relative to God's sovereignty over the nations, explana- 
tory of what we have stated, may be in place. Under absolute monarchies, 
such as the Russian and Ottoman empires which are under the supreme 
control of one mind, that one will, for the time being, shapes the character 
of the government. God must, therefore, exercise, in some manner, a con- 
trolling power over that supreme ruler. We do not take the position that 
God makes a passive being of him ; using him as a mechanic his tools ; 
but that He controls him so far as not to allow him to thwart His great na- 
tional purposes. We have samples of His mode of government of kings in 
His treatment of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 
They act out their own wicked purposes till they collide with the resistless 
chariots of Jehovah. Without such overruling power and management 
the future would be a chaotic uncertainty. 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 347 

(2) God makes us3 of agents to carry out His purposes. Angels are 
thus occupied. Men, both good and bad, are selected as His agents. Cyrus 
was chosen to accomplish a certain work, the overthrow of Babylon. In 
that mission he was under God's direct control. Nations are selected for 
similar purposes. God designed to scatter His people, as a punishment. 
He commissioned the four Gentile monarchies to accomplish the work. 
Persons and nations, in carrying out the instructions of their commissions, 
add many of their own wicked acts, for which they in turn suffer punish- 
ment. The nations that have scattered Judah and Israel have added 
cruelty and oppression instead of human sympathy. An executioner com- 
mits a great sin when he executes the duties of his office with feelings of 
delight. The Son of God "■ By wicked hands was crucified and slain." 
Acts ii. 23. The point which we wish here to make is simply this, modern 
nations, with their rulers supreme, are equally subjected to the Divine pur- 
poses. This is a corollary, deduced from the main proposition, of God's 
universal government of Earth's nationalities. In treating of the Ottoman 
Phase of the Eastern Question we have labored to make their mission in- 
telligible to the reader. We are laboring to show the special mission of 
each great power in the coming contest. Under the Hebrew Phase we de- 
sign to give the definition of the true Eastern Question, and give the Di- 
vine solution of the true problem. The Ottoman empire is now executing 
the ofiSces of Custodian and Guardian, as well as an avenger and fortress, 
for 433 years. Let us examine her official history that we may learn with 
what intelligence and fidelity she has discharged the duties of her various 
offices. 

Constantinople was made the capital of the Ottoman empire by Mo- 
hammed II., A. D. 1453. He reigned till 1481 ; in all about thirty-one 
years. He was a deadly foe to Christianity ; never conversing with Chris- 
tians, without he immediately purified his hands and face by the legal rites 
of ablution. His passions were inexorable. Having subjugated the Greek 
capital he continued his ruinous course through the Grecian provinces and 
islands till the fragments of that empire were annihilated. It was boasted 
that Mohammed II. was the conqueror of two empires, twelve kingdoms, 
and two hundred cities. In 1467, after the destruction of four Turkish 
armies, at the head of the fifth, Mohammed took and annexed to his em- 
pire Epirus. He extended the Ottoman empire in Asia, towards Persia; 
.carried his arms into Italy, and took Otranto; but died in 1481 at Nico- 
media, while on his way to join his son Bajazet, who was waging war against 
Persia and Egypt. His military contests were divided between Persia and 
Europe. It is said that Mohammed was possessed of great abilities ; he 
was brave, enterprising, and sagacious ; he was not deficient in learning, as 
he spoke four languages fluently, skilled in geography, ancient history, and 
the natural science, and had a practical knowledge of the fine arts. But 
the brilliancy of his career, and the occasional generosity and even mag- 
nanimity which he showed, can not obliterate the recollection of those arts 
of cruelty and treachery which have branded him as the most ruthless 



348 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tyrant of the house of Othman. He is held in revered memory by the 
Turks, as the founder of Ottoman power in Europe. 

Under Mohammed II. the Ottoman empire was very considerably en- 
larged. He gave it Constantinople, which still remains as its seat of em- 
pire, both for its possessions in the three grand divisions, Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, Under this Sultan the empire was still rising; enlarging its boun- 
daries and growing in the splendor and vigor of its administration. The 
Cresent was an appropriate symbol of its growing power. 

(2) Bajazet II. became Sultan on the death of his father, A. D. 1481, 
and reigned till A. D. 1512 — 31 years. His reign, which continued nearly 
thirty-two years, was constantly occupied in wars ; with Egypt, in Africa ; 
Persia, in Asia; and Venice, Poland, and Hungary, in Europe. They 
were attended with no very great success. On the whole, however, the 
Ottoman empire was still rising ; such was required in the nature of its 
mission. The great northern power, which was to be held back by the 
Ottoman imperial chordon, was rapidly increasing, with an innate desire to 
possess Constantinople. The increase of Russian power and aspirations re- 
quired a corresponding growth of Ottoman, since, in these early days of the 
British empire, it could have obtained no help from that source. The care- 
ful reader must keep his eye on the three great powers, England, Russia, 
and Turkey. European national movements were too young at that early 
period, even to outline their present immense proportions. The Ottoman 
and British empires had then no political relationship ; nor had the Turks 
any national sympathy in Europe. The Cresent and the Cross were then 
implacable enemies. Such was the hostility of the Koran to the Bible. 
" The Turkish casuists have pronounced that no promise can bind the 
faithful against the interest and duty of their religion ; and that the Sul- 
tan may abrogate his own treaties and those of his predecessors." — Gibbon. 
The Ottoman empire, therefore, while it battled alone, and for the propaga- 
tion of a new and hostile religion, necessarily required a growth of power 
in the ratio of the increase of its enemies' power. Our view of the charac- 
ter of the Ottoman mission requires such growth. Egypt, Syria, Palestine, 
and Asia minor must come under Turkish dominion and guardianship. 

Bajazet (pronounced Bayazet) was a friend to the dervishes (Turkish 
monks), at the same time liberal, and fond of pomp and splendor. Many 
of the most beautiful mosques in Constantinople and Adrianople were 
built by him, and fitted up in a style of the greatest magnificence. Bajazet, 
exhausted with fatigue and debauchery, was anxious to place his crown 
upon the head of his eldest son, Ahmed. In this critical situation Selim, 
his youngest son, arrived in the vicinity of Constantinople under pretense 
of visiting his father. This young prince was soon surrounded by the 
whole court, who ranged themselves under his banners ; and the aged mon- 
arch, foreseeing what would be the event of such a visit, resigned his crown 
into the hands of Selim. 

(3) Selim I. became Sultan of the Ottoman empire at the age of forty- 
five years, A. D. 1512, April 25. To make himself secure upon the throne 
lie caused his father, brothers and nephews to be put to death, thus begin- 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 349 

ning a policy which he followed inflexibly through the whole of his sub- 
sequent reign, viz., to destroy without scruple every actual or possible ob- 
stacle to the accomplishment of his own ends. Forced onward by a de- 
vouring appetite for conquest, and by the warlike fanaticism of the Jani- 
zaries he declared war against Persia (1514), and marched to the East with 
250,000 men, putting to death, on the way, 40,000 Shiites. He defeated 
Shah Ismail at Calderoon with immense loss. He gained possession of Diar- 
bekir and Kurdistan. In the year following he conquered Armenia, and 
leaving his lieutenants to finish and hold the conquests, he marched 
against the Mameluke Sultan of Egpyt, totally defeated him, A. D. 1510. 
Syria was also taken. The victorious Turks then entered Cairo, without 
opposition, A. D. 1517. Touman-Bey and his chief supporters were put 
to death, and Egypt incorporated with the Ottoman empire. Selim, how- 
ever, as he imagined he could not insure the quiet possession of Egypt, but 
by the total extinction of that people, offered rewards to those who should 
discover any of them, and denounced the severest punishment against such 
as concealed them. When he thought he had them all assembled he 
ordered a superb throne erected for him upon the bank of the Nile, without 
the gates of Cairo ; and these unhappy wretches being brought into his 
presence he caused them all to be murdered before his eyes, and their bodies 
to be thrown into the river. 

While in Egypt, the Sultan Selim I., received from the last lineal 
descendant of the Abbaside Caliph, who was then resident in Egypt, the 
religious prestige which had devolved upon himself, by descent, and at the 
same time, bestowed upon him the title of " Imaum," and the standard of 
the prophet. (Imaum means teacher. The Sultan himself has the title of 
Imaum, as the spiritual chief of all the Moslems). In consequence of this 
gift, the Ottoman Sultan became the chief of Islam, as the representative of 
Mohammed, and the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, along with the 
chief Arabian tribes, in consequence acknowledged his supremacy. In less 
than four years, Selim did more to extend the Ottoman empire than any 
of his most renowned predecessors during a whole reign. He laid the 
foundation of a regular marine, constructed the arsenal at Pera, punished 
the insolence of the Janizaries, and labored to ameliorate, by better insti- 
tutions, the condition of the various nations he had conquered. " He died 
Sept. 22, 1520, while planning fresh campaigns against both Persians and 
Christians." 

The reign of Selim I. was of short duration, but very prosperous to 
the Ottoman empire. The incorporation with the empire of Egypt and 
Syria, and his ecclesiastical authority were events of the first magnitude. 
It makes the Sultan a royal high-priest of the Mohammedan world. In 
him is vested the supreme authority of Church and State. 

Egypt and Syria complete the list of those countries where are located 
the toll-gates of the great Eastern and Western highways. That empire, 
in Syria, Armenia and Anatolia secured the land of Israel. The Ottoman 
empire rose very rapidly during this reign, but did not reach its Zenith. 

(4) Solyman II., "The Magnificent," said to be the greatest of Turkish 



350 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Sultans, was born A. D. 1496, and succeeded to the throne of his father, 
Selim I., A. D. 1520. He was carefully instructed by his father, in the 
secrets of Ottoman policy. He introduced many reforms ; restored confis- 
cated property ; and removed from office, those that had shown themselves 
unworthy or incapable. He suppressed the revolt of the governor of Syria, 
exterminated the remnant of the Mamelukes ; and concluded a treaty with 
Persia. Leaving the East, he formed the design of extending his empire in 
Europe as his father had in Asia. The indiscreet insolence of the Hunga- 
rian court, drew him into that country with a powerful army, and Belgrade, 
its key, was taken A. D. 1521. He then directed his arms against the Chris- 
tians, and took Rhodes from the Knights of St. John, who had occupied 
the island for more than two hundred years. He afterwards turned his 
forces against Hungary. He gained a signal victory at Mohacz, A. D. 1526, 
and pushed forward to Buda, which was taken, and Pesth. At this point, 
he had news of a rebellion in the East. On his way to Constantinople, 
down the Danube, he moved upon the tide of desolation. In 1529 he re- 
turned into Hungary with a mighty army, taking and destroying every- 
thing in his pathway. He laid siege to Vienna, but failed and retreated. 
Two years later, (A. D. 1531) he again invaded Hungary, but was checked 
In his progress by Charles V. in person, who had come with the imperial 
army of 250,000, in aid of his brother. He retired to his own territory. In 
1535 he concluded with Francis I., the famous treaty which opened the 
commerce of the Levant to the French flag alone. In 1540 the Turks 
gained entire possession of Hungary, making king John tributary. After 
this conquest, the alliance between the French and the Turks began to 
produce its fruits ; the combined fleets ravaged the Italian coasts, and, in 
1542 pillaged Nice. Peace was made with Germany in 1547. The Turks 
were now supreme in the Mediterranean ; Gozzo and Tripoli fell in his 
possession. A second and third war with Persia now partly subjugated, 
were successful. He gained a brilliant naval victory over the Knights of 
Malta and their allies the Spaniards. He also took Bagdad, the whole of 
Assyria and Mesopotamia. In a word he extended his reputation as a 
warrior to both extremities of the world. Solyman died at the siege of 
Szeged in September 5, 1566. 

Solyman II. stood, in the Ottoman empire, as Trajan in the Roman 
empire, on the summit of its power and grandeur. It was now 267 years 
since Othman, the founder of that domination, entered the territory of 
Nicomedia, a Greek province; and 113 years after Constantinople had been 
made the Turkish capital. Egypt and part of northern Africa; Syria, in- 
cluding Palestine, Assyria, Mesopotamia; pg-rt of Persia; Armenia and 
nearly all Asia Minor ; all southeastern Europe, including Hungary, and a 
portion of Russia, north of the Black Sea; the command of the entire 
Mediterranean sea, with many of its islands, under this able Sultan, formed 
the Ottoman empire. That empire, at this period, was fully inducted into 
its offices, of Custodian of the great Eastern highways; guardian of the 
Holy Land, and its sacred localities; in a word, the great empire, to hold 
the land of Israel from the encroachment of the northern Gog till the em- 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 351 

pire of the south should be able to come to its aid and release the Ottoman 
power from its arduous duties. We shall look for the Ottoman empire to 
decrease as the British empire increases towards the East. The Ottoman 
power, henceforward, might have used the language of one of old, "He 
(the British empire) must increase, but I (Ottoman empire) must decrease." 
That decrease has been very gradual, having already extended through 
more than three centuries. 

(5) Selim II., succeeded his father Solyman in 1566, and continued at 
the head of the Turkish empire till A. D. 1574. Under his reign, the ,em- 
pire met with two reverses. (1) The first was with the Russians. Under 
his reign was the first collision of the Turks with the Russians. Selim 
thought that the connection of the Don and Volga by a canal would, by 
allowing the passage of ships from the Black Sea into the Caspian, be a 
valuable aid to both military and commercial enterprise, and accordingly 
he sent 5,000 workmen to cut a canal, and an army to aid and protect them. 
But unluckily, the possession of Astrakhan formed part of the programme, 
and the attack of this town waked up the Russian hive, a people till then 
unknown in southern Europe, and the canal scheme came to an end. (2) 
The second reverse was a naval engagement at Lepanto, in Greece, October 
7, 1571, between the Christian allied fleet, of 210 sail, under the command 
of Don John of Austria ; and the Ottoman fleet of 300 galleys, commanded 
by Ali Pasha. The Turkish line was broken, the admiral Ali slain, and 
Cervantes was dangerously wounded. The Venetian ships, at the same 
time, attacked the Turkish right, a terrible defeat of the Turks followed. 
More than 3,000 Christians were killed. The Turks lost 30,000 men in 
killed and wounded, and 107 galleys were taken and a large number sunk. 
Thousands of Christian galley slaves were liberated by this victory. In 
this naval engagement the whole marine force of the Turks being brought 
into service, their navy was almost annihilated. 

The latter part of his reign was occupied in petty wars with Venice, 
Spain, and his rebellious feudatory of Moldavia. From this time and on- 
ward Turkey will have frequent conflicts with her great northern foe, the 
Russian. Peter the Great, about one century later enunciates in his will 
the Russian policy, relative to Constantinople and European Turkey. (6) 
Amurath III. became Sultan, A. D. 1574, and reigned till A. D. 1595, 21 
years. In his reign the Turks dictated to the Poles relative to the choice 
of a king. To keep his untractable Janizaries occupied, he made war upon 
Russia, Poland, Germany, and Venice, and subdued Georgia. In 1589 the 
English embassy to Turkey was received. The object of that embassy was 
to conclude an alliance against Philip II. of Spain. This was one year 
after the Spanish Armada had been sent to England to crush Protestant- 
ism. At this time England, under Elizabeth, could command only 30 
small ships of the line to oppose the Armada of 130 vessels, larger than 
any that had yet been built. It is said of Amurath, that his first words to 
his courtiers at his accession were, "I am hungry; give me something to 
eat," these were prophetic of the famines and disasters of his reign. Queen 
Elizabeth gained his friendship in 1579 and entered into the above-named 



352 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

treaty. Amurath was of quiet disposition, a lover of justice, and very 
zealous in his religion. The three great powers which now fill such im- 
portant positions in the great East and over the world, began to form 
national associations. England and Russia were in these early days in- 
ferior to Turkey, but they were each rapidly growing while Turkey had 
shown symptoms of incipient decline. Turkey rendered England no aid 
against Spain for the reason that the destruction of the Spanish Armada 
rendered his interference unnecessary. 

* Amurath carried on an exhausting, yet successful war with Persia, had 
a long contest with Austria which was attended at first with brilliant suc- 
cess, approaching within 40 miles of Vienna, but afterward suffered such 
terrible defeats that they were compelled to evacuate all Hungary and Tran- 
sylvania, and were saved from destruction by the Poles who entered Mol- 
davia and drove out the Transylvanians and Hungarians, thus giving the 
Turks an opportunity of rallying, and even recovering some of their losses. 
History says, "The latter part of this war happened during the reign of 
Mohammed III. (1595-1604), and offered unmistakable symptoms of the 
decline of Turkish prowess, and showed the weakness of the central 
administration." (7) Mohammed III. reigned from A. D. 1595 to A. D. 
1604. He began his reign by putting to death 19 brothers, took away the 
lives of all the late" Sultan's wives and concubines, lest there might be 
some Posthumous progeny. There were perpetual fightings between the 
Janizaries and his other soldiers. The Pashas rebelled in many provinces, 
and the Sultan through fear made peace with them by confirming them in 
their offices. Immersed in the pleasures of the Seraglio, Mohammed be- 
stowed no other attention on public affairs than was necessarily required. 
He caused his eldest son, a prince of inestimable qualities, to be put to 
death. The reign of such a monarch necessarily weakened the empire. 
(8) Ahmed became Sultan A. D. 1604 at the age of about fifteen years, and 
reigned till A. D. 1617. It was soon evinced that he was worthy of the 
sceptre. His reign was noted for the many fires in Constantinople, which 
were signs of a restless, discontented population. Internal dissensions 
marked his reign. 

(9) Mustapha, his brother, succeeded him in A. D. 1617. By his cruel- 
ties he became so odious that he was deposed, and sent to prison in the 
castle of the seven towers, and his nephew, son of Ahmed, was placed on 
the throne in 1618. 

(10) Othman, much displeased with his unruly Janizaries, meditated 
revenge against them, but, as he was not able to banish them from Con- 
stantinople, he formed the design of removing the seat of government 
into Asia. 

The Janizaries learning his intention, put to death his grand vizier, 
whom they supposed to be the author of the measure, imprisoned Othman, 
who was soon put to death, and reinstated Mustapha on the throne. This, 
however, was of no advantage to the uncle. He was treated as an idiot, 
led about upon an ass, exposed to the derision and insults of the populace, 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 353 

and then carried back to prison, where he was strangled by the orders of 
his successor. 

(11) Amurath IV., brother of Othman, began to reign A. D. 1623, and 
was Sultan till A. D. 1640. By his courage and intrepidity he repressed 
the turbulence of the Janizaries. He waged a successful war with Austria 
for Hungary, but this Avas more than counterbalanced in Persia, where Sha 
Abbas the "great, conquered Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia, and in 
the north where the Poles and Russians threw off his allegiance. His amuse- 
ment was to run about the streets in the night with a sabre in his hand, 
and to cut down all whom he met. No empire could prosper under such 
chiefs as were the last four Sultans. Had there not come a speedy change 
for the better the days of the Ottoman empire would long since have been 
numbered. God in his allwise providence had ordered it otherwise. 

(12) Ibrahim, the brother of Amurath IV., succeeded to the throne, 
A. D. 1640, and reigned till A. D. 1648, when, not being able to put 
down a revolt among the Janizaries, excited by the mufti (expounders of 
law) resigned his crown, and was, soon after, put to death. His acts were 
of but little service to the empire. Called from a four years' imprisonment 
to the throne, he was so intoxicated by the pleasures, that, resigning the 
administration of the government to the former ministers, he devoted him- 
self wholly to the luxuries of the harem. Under his reign, Mustafa, the 
grand vizier, a person of noted ability and integrity, stood at the helm of 
government ; he took from the Poles their conquests ; and in a war with 
the Venetians, in 1645, obtained the island of Candia, and nearly all their 
strongholds in the ^gean Sea, with the loss, however, of some towns in 
Dalmatia. 

(13) Mohammed IV., the eldest son of Ibrahim, became Sultan, A. 
D. 1648, and directed the government till A. D. 1687 — 89 years. His 
reign was commenced under very unfavorable circumstances. He was only 
seven years old when called to the throne, at which time the whole power 
was vested in the Janizaries and their partisans, who made use of it for 
their own selfish ends. Fortunately, however, for the Ottoman empire, a 
person of obbcure birth, Mohammed Koprili by name, supposed to be of 
French descent, was, at the age of 70 years, appointed vizier, and his ex- 
traordinary abilities were the salvation of the Turkish empire. Koprili 
was succeeded by his son Achmet, A. D. 1661, a man of equal ability, and 
under his masterly guidance the central government at Constantinople 
recovered its control over even the most distant provinces; a formidable 
war with Germany, though unsuccessfully carried on (in 1663), was con- 
cluded by a peace advantageous to the Turkish empire ; Crete was sub- 
dued, and Podolia taken from the Poles; though, soon after, much of the 
last acquired territor}^ was recovered by John Sobieski. Achmet's suc- 
cessor overran tlie Austrian territories, and laid siege to Vienna; but the 
siege was raised, and his army defeated by a combined army under the 
duke Charles of Lorraine, and John Sobieski, king of Poland. The Aus- 
trians, taking advantage of this victory, repossessed themselves of Hun- 
gary, inflicting upon the Turks a bloody defeat at Mohacz, A. D. 1687. 

23 



354 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

He abdicated in 1687. The exploits of Mohammed IV. were glorious, 
and did much to re-establish the primitive greatness of the Ottoman 
power. His famous siege of Candia, which subjected the ancient Crete to 
the standard of the Crescent is one of the marked events of history. "At 
the beginning of the eighteenth century fathers at Vienna were accus- 
tomed to relate to their children the battles which they had witnessed un- 
der the walls of that city when great Sobieski shattered the hopes of the 
Mohammedans." He was distinguished for mercy, and seldom com- 
manded his troops in person. Because of this absence from his army the 
troops revolted and placed the crown on one of his brothers. His exploits 
would fill the pages of volumes. 

(13) Solymann II., his brother, succeeded to the throne A. D. 1687, 
and reigned till 1691. He was the means of restoring glory and fortune to 
the Turkish arms. He had to support a disastrous war against Germany 
and Venice, the misfortunes of which were attended with the most ruinous 
consequences. But Kiopruli Mustapha Pasha being appointed grand vizier, 
regenerated the empire, and putting himself at the head of the main army, 
besieged and took the fortress of Belgrade. Solyman died of the dropsy. 
One point in these Ottoman struggles deserves special note : a want of suc- 
cess against the German nationalities. Their subjugation to the Turkish 
empire was not an element in the programme of God's family arrangements. 
Germans are too intimately associated by blood with that people whom Je- 
hovah has purposed to make the central empire ; — the hub of the great na- 
tional wheel. When righteousness is made the world's ruling element, the 
family of Shem must furnish the chief and the principal subordinate 
rulers. 

(14) Ahmed II., brother to Solyman II., was Sultan of the Ottoman 
empire from A. D. 1691 to 1695. He was killed on the banks of the Danube 
when on the point of obtaining a victory. He was a man of little judg- 
ment and little influence in the government. 

(15) Mustapha II., son of Mohammed IV., was Sultan from A. D. 
1695 to A. D. 1702. He imparted vitality and vigor to the empire. He 
commanded his troops in person ; still he met with a more disgraceful and 
more complete defeat than the Turks had ever experienced. He was occu- 
pied with wars against Austria. On the death of Koprili (or Kiopruli) for- 
tune deserted the Turks, and the peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, forever put an 
end to Turkish domination in Hungary. His troops not receiving their 
pay, according to stipulation, took up arms, deposed Mustapha, and invited 
his brother, Ahmed (or Achmet) to repair to the camp preparatory to tak- 
ing the command. 

(16) Ahmed III. (Achmet), brother to Mustapha II., became Sultan 
of the Ottoman empire in A. D. 1702, and reigned till A. D. 1730. In the 
course of five months Ahmed put to death more than 14,000 soldiers who 
had taken the greatest share in the rebellion ; they were carried away in 
the night and drowned in the Bosphorus. During his reign a war com- 
menced between the Ottoman empire and Russia ; the war with Germany 
and Venice was rekindled, and another war was carried on in Persia. These 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 355 

military expeditions, though some times attended with success, reduced 
the empire to a state of general weakness, which was felt particularly in 
Constantinople. They tended to irritate the minds of men and prepare the 
people for a revolt. The war with Russia was brought on by Charles XII. 
of Sweden, while residing at Bender, a town in Turkey. He had been de- 
feated by the Russians and fled to the Turks for protection. While there 
Charles XII. induced the Sultan to declare war against Russia. The Czar, 
Peter the Great, relying on the uncertain aid of Woiwode of Moldavia, 
found himself in great danger, which was finally turned by the genius of 
his queen, afterward Catharine I. The recovery, in part, of the Morea from 
the Venetians, and the loss of Belgrade, and parts of Servia and Wallachia, 
afterwards recovered by Mahmud I., (Mohammed V.), and the beginning of 
a long war with Persia concluded the acts of his reign. 

(17) Mahmud I. ascended the Ottoman throne A. D. 1730, and reigned 
till A. D. 1754. Under his reign (Mahmud I., or Mohammed V.) began a 
new era in the Turkish empire; (1) it was the era of a change in the mode 
of administration. Before this time, from the days of Mohammed II., the 
whole administration had been usually delegated to viziers ; but since this 
and the preceding rebellion had originated in the overgrown power and 
ambition of these officers, Mahmud I. took the authority into his own 
hands and determined to change his viziers frequently. (2) This was the 
era of the commencement of active Russian aggression. The reign of Peter 
the Great marked the beginning of the Russian policy to take Constan- 
tinople and absorb the Ottoman empire. That scheme haunted him by 
day and in his night vision ; and so intensely did it occupy his living hours 
that he bequeathed the thought to the future czars of his empire to use all 
possible means to take Constantinople and to drive the Turks out of 
Europe. Not being able to accomplish this work alone Russia sought to 
associate with him the empire of Austria. To fully understand the ele- 
ments of the Eastern Question in these early times, we shall be obliged to 
bring upon the national theatre another power, the British empire, that, 
even then, ruled the ocean, and was gradually moving eastward and taking 
possession of the East Indies. It was the opinion of Peter the Great that 
the power that held India would rule the world. In our history of the 
British and Russian Phases we have traced their agencies in this east- 
ern contest. We now direct attention to the agency of the Ottoman, or 
middle empire ; the imperial chordon against Russian aggression ; the cus- 
todian of national highways to the East, the guardian of the land of Is- 
rael during its sabbath rest; the true and legal officer of these highways 
and interests till aided and released by the British, the great empire of 
the South ; three empires, the northern (or Russian), the southern (or 
British), and the middle (or Ottoman), empires. The movements of these 
empires must be strictly watched. They are intimately associated in the 
Divine plan of nationalities, and thus are they associated when the Mes- 
siah takes to him His great power and begins His reign of subjugation. 
One point, as we progress in Ottoman history, will call forth our aston- 
ishment, how the Turkish empire has sustained her European nationality 



356 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

against such fearful odds. The aid of the Almighty alone solves the 
problem. Russia must be held to the North till the Hebrew emigration 
and nationality are fully secured ; Gog must be kept out of the land of 
Israel until it is full of un walled villages (colonies), and the people 
(Hebrews) dwelling there have become wealthy. The art of printing 
was introduced into the Ottoman empire during this reign. 

(18) Othman III. became Sultan A. D. 1754, and reigned till A. D. 
1757. His reign was not worthy of any special note, but is introduced 
to keep unbroken the chain of sultans. He was the brother of Mahmud 
I. and went from the prison to the throne. During the previous reign, the 
Austrians aiding the Russians, met with many disgraceful defeats. 

(19) Mustafa III. succeeded to the Turkish throne in A. D. 1757, 
and reigned till A. D. 1774. During his reign the empire continued in a 
state of profound tranquility. 

(20) Abdul-Hamid began to reign in A. D. 1774, and exercised the 
supreme power till A. D. 1789. During his reign there was a bloody war 
with the Russians. In violation of the treaty of Belgrade, the Russians 
invaded Moldavia. The war with Russia continued through his entire 
reign. The fortresses along the Danube were taken by the Russians, and 
the main army of the Turks was totally defeated at Shumla. Prince 
Gallitzin gained four great victories over the Turks. They overran Mol- 
davia and Wallachia, and gained a great naval victory off Chesme, where 
the whole of the Turkish fleet was destroyed. One historian thus speaks : 
"^The campaign (in which Shumla was taken — W.) was ended July 10, 
1774, by the celebrated treaty of Kutshouk-Kainardji. In defiance of its 
provisions, the czarina took possession of the Crimea and the whole coun- 
try eastward to the Caspian. The Sultan was compelled by his indignant 
subjects to take up arms in 1787. In 1788 Austria made another foolish 
attempt to arrange with Russia a partition of Turkey ; but, as before, the 
Austrian forces were completely routed. The Russians, however, with 
their usual success, had overrun the northern provinces, taken all the prin- 
cipal fortresses, and captured or destro^^ed the Turkish fleet." The war was 
not terminated during the reign of Abdul-Hamid, though it had been ex- 
ceedingly disastrous to the Ottoman empire. There was vitality enough to 
continue the struggle. 

(21) Selim III. began to reign over the Ottoman empire A. D, 1789, 
and continued in power until A. D. 1807. He began the war against the 
Russians with great zeal; but the Austrians had again joined the Russians. 
Belgrade surrendered to the Austrians, while the Russians took Bucharest, 
Bender, Akerman, and Ismail; but aflairs in western Europe, putting on a 
critical aspect, made it advisable for Russia to terminate the war, and a 
treaty of peace was accordingly signed at Jassy, Jan. 9, 1792. By this 
treaty the provisions of Kainardji were confirmed, the Dniester was made 
the boundary line, the secession of the Crimea and the Kuban was con- 
firmed and Belgrade was restored to the Sultan. Under the reign of Selim 
III. political reforms were undertaken. They were supposed to be of 
French origin, since Selim was a great admirer of that people. His war 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 357 

with Russia in which his army of 150,000 men was totally defeated, first 
by the prince of Coburg and the next by the Russian Suwarof, put a stop 
to his schemes of reform. He was troubled by the French expedition into 
Egypt under Napoleon ; still he continued a friend to the French, and fol- 
lowed many of the fashions of western Europe. These changes stirred up 
against him all the fanatic bigotry of his subjects. The priests of Islam 
preached revolt throughout the empire accusing their sovereign of infidelity 
to the Koran. A rebellion broke out and put to death those that were sent 
against it. The rebels marched to Constantinople, their ranks being swelled 
as they progressed by the bodies of disaffected Janizaries. Those that had 
favored the Sultan's schemes were slain, so that Selim was obliged to issue 
a decree to suppress the reforms, and to resign his crown to his cousin 
Mustapha IV, and was soon apprehended and put to death. The occupa- 
tion of Egypt brought on a war, which, by the aid of the British, resulted 
in the re-establishment of the Ottoman power over Napoleon in Egypt. 

(22) Mustaph IV. became Sultan in A. D. 1807, and gave way to an- 
other Sultan in 1808. His reign was ephemeral. 

(23) Mahmud II. began to reign A. D. 1808, and continued in power 
till A. D. 1839. He was an able and energetic sovereign. With dominion 
lessened by the loss of Greece, which had gained its independence in a 
severe and protracted struggle (1820 to 1829), aided by the enlightened 
Christian nations of Europe and of the country between the Dniester and 
the Pruth, which, by the treaty of 1812 at Bucharest, was surrendered to 
Russia, he instituted such reforms in every department of the government 
as to renovate the empire. His reforms of the army exposed him to the 
fury of the Janizaries, and only secured life his and throne by the destruc- 
tion of all the other members of the royal house of Osman. The war with 
Russia began and was carried on with great vigor. Russia and Turkey 
seemed to have no other object in this conflict than mutual destruction. 
After three years of severe fighting, which prostrated the strength of Tur- 
key, peace was concluded at Bucharest. To this peace (A. D. 1812) the 
Russians were inclined, because of the invasion of their country by a 
powerful army under Napoleon. Peace being concluded with Russia, 
Mahmud applied himself to the subjugation of the semi-independent 
pashas of the more distant provinces, and to the promotion of radical 
reforms in the various departments of the government. Various provin- 
cial rebellions were soon crushed. Greece gained its independence by the 
battle of Navarino 1827, and it was acknowledged by Turkey A. D. 1830. 
During the Greek revolution Mahmud had been secretly yet constantly 
maturing his plans of military reform, and in June 1826, the success of 
his schemes was crowned by the destruction of the Janizaries. The con- 
fusion in Turkey, following from their overthrow, was improved by Russia 
in obtaining other concessions. Mahmud, however, still continued his 
reforms with an iron will; such reforms as he deemed necessary to the 
stability of his government, and the prosperity of the empire. The un- 
fortunate results of the succeeding war with Russia, 1828-9, stimulated 
Mahmud to carry forward his reform schemes the more vigorously. The 



358 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

success of the Greeks in gaining their independence and the success of the 
Russians, stimulated Mehemed Ali, pasha of Egypt, to make a similar 
effort for the independence of his own country. His success was extraor- 
dinary. This Viceroy was hy hirth a Macedonian ; but at an early period 
entered the Turkish army. In 1799 he was sent to Egypt with the com- 
mand of 300 troops to co-operate with the British against the French in- 
vaders. His superior military abilities rapidly developed, and he was 
made the commander of the Albanian forces in Egypt. In 1806 he was 
made by the Sultan Viceroy of Egypt. He was soon involved in a struggle 
against the Mamelukes, which resulted in their destruction as a body. 
Some fled, but were expelled from Egypt the following year. They were 
followed into Nubia and there utterly exterminated. He reorganized his 
army on the principles adopted in western Europe; built a fleet, erected 
fortresses, military workshops and arsenals. In 1827 his navy was de- 
stroyed in the battle of Navarino. Such was the success of Mehemed Ali 
(Mehemed Ali or Mohammed Ali) that the European powers interfered 
twice to save the Ottoman empire. Mehemet Ali, if he had been suffered 
to act out his own resistless purposes, would have conquered the Ottoman 
empire and renovated Egypt. He established a system of education, in- 
troduced the cultivation of cotton, indigo and sugar, and filled Syria with 
mulberry plantations. Mahmud's reign of 31 years was made up of stirring 
events. It is remarkable that a reign of so much ability and full of such 
untiring energy, should be attended with such national disasters. But the 
time had come in the history of the Ottoman empire, when a new system 
of national policy, the union of the western powers, such as Great Britain 
and Prance, to uphold the Ottoman empire against the persevering en- 
croachments of the northern Autocrat. Their interference with Egyptian 
affairs had in view the same object, the existence of the Ottoman empire, 
so that the Turkish imperial chordon might be sustained as a wall against 
Russian aggressive despotism. The balance of power among the European 
nationalities required the continued existence of the Turkish empire. 
From the period of the reign of Mahmud II. the European system of the 
balance of power has been steadily on the increase. From this cause rather 
than for any sympathy in behalf of the Turk and the Koran, the Ottoman 
empire still exercises the offices of Custodian of the great eastern highways, 
and Guardian of the land of Israel and its sacred interests. No other na- 
tion would be allowed to fill the position. These points deserve particular 
note. The weakness of the Ottoman empire in itself is no valid proof 
under the full exercise of the European balance of power policy, that said 
empire will be allowed to disappear from the world's national arena. We 
are fully justified in saying that the Ottoman has the strength of all the 
powers behind her throne, whether it be the British empire alone, or that 
power sustained by the purposes and power of Jehovah. 

(24) Abdul Medjid became Sultan of the Turkish empire A. D. 1839, 
and continued to reign till A. D. 1861. He carried on the reforms com- 
menced by his father Mahmud II., yet he had to contend with Russia. 
Russia still dreamed of universal empire as outlined in the " will " of Peter 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 359 

the Great. The Czar under the delusive impression that the dissolution of 
the Ottoman empire was at hand, constantly tried to wring from the Sultan 
some acknowledgment of a right of interference with the internal affairs 
of the country. An attempt to obtain the exclusive protectorate of the 
members of the Greek Church in Turkey, originated the "Crimean war" 
of 1853-55, in which the Ottoman empire was triumphantly sustained by 
the aid of England, France, and Sardinia. 

" The treaty of Paris (1856) restored to Turkey the command of both 
sides of the lower Danube, excluded the Czar from his assumed protectorate 
over the Danubian principalities, and closed the Black sea against all ships 
of war. The porte, apparently adopted into the family of European na- 
tions, made proclamation of equal civil rights to all the races and creeds of 
the Turkish dominions." 

The massacre of Christians in Lebanon and at Damascus was a viola- 
tion of the Turkish declaration of equal rights ; consequently the nations 
of western Europe again interfered ; and that on this principle, that if the 
Turkish central government had not power sufficient to enforce her laws in 
favor of all races and creeds within her dominions, it was their duty to aid 
the Sultan in his efforts at reform and equal justice. The latter years of 
the reign of the Abdul Medjid were seriously tarnished by an irrational 
profuseness of expenditure. It will be seen that the decline of Turkish 
power was followed by the increase of western interference; a firm purpose 
existed in the policy of the western nations, not to allow Russia to become 
custodian in the place of the Ottoman empire, well knowing that such a 
conquest would totally annihilate the European system of the balance of 
power. From the reign of Abdul Medjid to the present time, the provinces 
forming European Turkey have been subject to many vicissitudes, such 
changes as have materially altered the boundaries of the Turkish empire. 

(25) Abdul-Aziz succeeded his brother to the throne of the Ottoman 
empire in 1861. Under his reign the people of Moldavia and Wallachia 
formed a union under the name of Roumania. In 1866 the empire, more 
and more enfeebled through its corrupt administration, was forced to see 
the Roumanians expel their ruler; and, in expectation of support from the 
western powers, chose prince Charles of Hohenzollern to be hereditary 
prince of the united principalities. In 1866 a rebellion broke out in Crete 
aided by Greece, but it was soon put down. In 1867, by demand of the 
Servians, the Turkish garrisons were removed from certain fortresses in 
their country. In the same year the Sultan granted to the Pasha of Egypt 
the unique title Khedive (sovereign), who, since that year, has exercised 
power somewhat absolute, though tributary to the Sultan. He has per- 
petual succession in the male line. He has a right to increase his army 
and navy and to borrow money, and also to conclude treaties of commerce. 
Still the Sultan retains in his hands the disposition of the government of 
Egypt, who issued a firman deposing Ismail in favor of His son (1879) 
prince Mohammed Tevfik. This was accomplished in the interests of 
England and France. The Khedive is virtually an independent sovereign. 



360 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The rebellion which has recently taken place in Egypt, has added new 
features to Ottoman complications. 

Between 1854 and 1871 the debt of the Ottoman empire had been in- 
creased by more than £16,000,000. In 1875 the Porte was driven to partial 
repudiation of its debts. The beginning of a new era in Ottoman history 
was ushered in by an insurrection in Herzegovina, near the close of 1874. 
The uprising of the masses smoldered on through 1875 and a part of 1876. 
In this uprising nearly all of the Slavonic provinces of the Turkish empire 
became more or less actively enlisted. In May, 1875, a revolt which arose 
in Bulgaria was crushed with much bloodshed ; and the merciless savages, 
the bashi-bazouks (Turkish irregulars), by their bloody massacres, alienated 
all foreign sympathy. In May of the same year Abdul Aziz was deposed, 
and his nephew, Murad V., son of Abdul Medjid, succeeded him. He was 
compelled to make way for his brother, Abdul Hamid II., in August of the 
same year. In June Servia declared war, and Montenegro followed her ex- 
ample. Before the close of the year the Servians were utterly defeated-, 
though assisted by many Russian volunteers. Owing to the critical state 
of the Slavo-Turkish provinces, and the exposures of the Christian popula- 
tion, a conference of the great powers was called at Constantinople. The 
proposals there and then made were not accepted by Turkey. In the mean- 
time the Sultan bestowed a parliamentary constitution on the Ottoman em- 
pire. Russia assumed the task to force on Turkey the suggestions of the 
conference, and on April 24, 1877, declared war. The beginning of the 
campaign, both in Bulgaria and Armenia, was in favor of the Russians; 
but later in the season the Turks rallied and seriously checked the hitherto 
triumphant progress of the invaders. The Russian forces were augmented, 
.still they met with serious reverses. Kars, besieged for several months, 
held out till the middle of November; Erzeroum did not surrender till after 
the armistice had been concluded. 

The Ottoman empire exhibited other features of national vitality. Os- 
man Pasha, who took command at Plevna, in the forepart of July, repelled 
with brilliant success repeated and determined assaults from a besieging 
army of Russians and Roumanians; and had so strengthened the fortifica- 
tions as to stand siege till Dec. 10, when he surrendered. Continued and 
desperate fighting in the Shipka pass failed to expel the Russians from their 
position in the Balkans; and within a month of the fall of Plevna the Rus- 
sians captured the whole Turkish army that was guarding the Shipka pass, 
then overran Roumelia without any difficulty. This district is within easy 
range of Constantinople. The victorious Russians occupied Adrianople in 
January, 1878, and on the last of that month an armistice was concluded; 
and in March the " preliminary treaty" of San Stefano was signed. Many 
diplomatic difficulties arose in consequence of the clashing of British and 
Russian interests. A congress of the European powers assembled in Berlin, 
and finally agreed to the following solution of the "eastern question:" 
" The vassal states, Roumania and Servia, as well as Montenegro, were 
declared independent, and each obtained an extension of territory. Rou- 
mania, which had to yield up its portion of Bessarabia to Russia, re- 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 361 

ceived in compensation the Dobrudscha, cut off by a line from Silistria 
to Mongalia (south of, and near the mouth of, the Danube, a peninsula 
between that river and the Black sea — W.). Servia was considerably ex- 
tended to the south. Montenegro received an additional strip of territory 
round almost the whole of its former frontier, including part of the Adri- 
atic sea-board of Antivaria. What was formerly the Turkish vila yet 
(province — W.) of the Danube was, with the exception of the Dobrudscha, 
now Roumanian, constituted a tributary but automatic principality, its 
southern boundary being the Balkan range. A large territory south of the 
Balkans was constituted into the separate province of Eastern Roumelia, and 
though remaining directly under the military and politicalauthority of the 
Sultan, secured the right of having a Christian governor-general and 
administration autonomy (self-legislation — W.). It was agreed that Herze- 
govina and Bosnia, excepting a small portion of the latter, should be occu- 
pied and administered by Austro-Hungary, and thus in large measure 
alienated from the porte; Spizza and its sea-board, immediately north of 
Antivaria, was incorporated with Dalmatia; Greece was to receive addi- 
tional territory, the congress recommending that the rectified frontiers 
should run up to Salambria river, from its mouth, cross the ridge dividing 
ancient Thessaly from Epirus, cut off the town of Janina, so as to leave it to 
Greece, and descend the Kalamas river to the Ionian sea. In Crete, 
the reformed government promised in 1868, is to be immediately 
and scrupulously carried out. In Asia the changes were much less con- 
siderable ; the port of Batum, henceforth to be essentially commercial, Kars 
and Ardahan, with a portion of Armenia, were ceded to Russia, and 
Khotour, east of Lake Van, to Persia; the porte engaging to carry out at 
once much needed administrative reforms in Armenia, and to see to it that 
henceforth religious differences shall in no part of the Ottoman empire 
hinder any one from the full exercise of all civil and political rights, or ex- 
clude from public offices or the professions." Another engagement entered 
into by Turkey at the same time seriously effects the standing of the em- 
pire, though it introduces no territorial change. By the "conditional con- 
vention,' made between Turkey and the United Kingdom, the English 
government undertakes to defend the porte's dominions in Asia, and re- 
ceive in return the right to occupy and administer the island of Cyprus. 
Such are the arrangements of the Berlin congress of 1878. Compare these 
boundaries with those of Turkey before the congress. The following is an 
estimate of the area and population of the Ottoman empire before the 
changes of the Berlin congress : 1. Immediate possessions. — In Europe, 
139,824 square miles; population, 9,400,364. In Asia and Africa, 1,083,673 
square miles; population, 18,079,172. District of Constantinople, popula- 
tion, 1,400,000; nomadic races, population, 2,000,000; army and police, 560,- 
262 ; foreign residents in Turkey, 500,000. 2. Protectorates. — In Europe- 
Roumania, 46,617 square miles, 5,073,000 inhabitants; Servia, 14,549 square 
miles; population, 1,367,000. In Africa-Egypt, 866,012 square miles and 
17,000,000 inhabitants. Tunis, 45,538 square miles, 2,000,000 inhabitants. 
3. Tributary principality of Samos, 8,217 square miles; population, 35,878. 



362 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Whole Ottoman empire, 2,196,425 square miles and 57,415,616 inhabitants. 
In the provinces. — (1) Bosnia, 300,522 Moslems, and 306,707 non-Moslems; 
(2) Monastir, 485,994 Moslems, 417,805 non-Moslems ; (3) Janina, 250,749 
Moslems, 467,601 non-Moslems ; (4) Salonica, 124,828 Moslems, and 124,157 
non-Moslems, (5) Adrianople, 235,587 Moslems, and 401,148 non-Moslems; 
(6) Danube, 455,767 Moslems, and 715,938 non-Moslems. Total, males, 
1,861,446 Moslems, and 2,432,356 non-Moslems. This table shows the causes 
of the late uprising of the people in these provinces. While the Ottoman 
power was resistless in its European provinces, Christianity, as taught by the 
Latin and Greek churches, was kept under; but when the civil power be- 
came so weakened as not to keep down religious liberty the masses began to 
claim their religious rights. The law of religious toleration throughout the 
whole Ottoman empire introduced a new era in the official administration 
of this once powerful custodian and guardian. Such a change was neces- 
sary to the proper execution of his offices. We call special attention to this 
law, and its effects relative to God's national purposes in the East. The 
law is as follows : — " The porte agrees to see to it that henceforth religious 
difference shall in no part of the Ottoman empire hinder any one from the 
full exercise of all civil and political rights, or exclude from public offices 
or the professions." This law of religious liberty made a new man of the 
custodian. In early times of that empire, when its progress was resistless, 
its motto was, " the Koran or the sword." Under its domination Christi- 
anity had no civil, political or religious rights. It was necessary, therefore, 
that the Turkish empire, by adversity, should be compelled to extend re- 
ligious liberty to all. Its direct influence on the Jewish colonization 
scheme will be noticed under the Hebrew Phase of the Eastern Question. 
The changes of administration of Ottoman affairs in Egypt mark the open- 
ings of divine providence. The great advance in eastern commercial inter- 
course are owing to the increase of sovereign power in Egypt's chief resident 
officer. He was once simply a viceroy, ruling under and for the Sultan. 
He is now a Kedive (sovereign), and virtually independent. Who can not 
see in this change the hand of the Almighty opening a high-way through 
the land of Ham? These changes in the administration of Turkey in 
Egypt originated and perfected the Suez canal, and has resulted in an unex- 
pected event among the eastern nations, viz., British occupation of the 
great valley of the Nile, and of all such portions of Africa as her southern 
interests may induce her to conquer and colonize. It ope'ns the southern 
world to the British empire, and places within its reach the vast resources 
of Central Africa. 

A brief sketch of some of the recent events transpiring in Egypt will 
close our outline history of the Ottoman empire. We notice simply the 
Ottoman aspect of those events, reserving other events for our concluding 
remarks. 

The change in the Ottoman government of Egvpt began with Mehemet 
Ali, by birth a Macedonian, as early as 1810. He gained immense power; 
and, by the action of the European powers, the Sultan made a compromise 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 363 

with Mehemet Ali, by greatly increasing his official powers. These powers 
descended in the male line of his family. 

Mehemet Ali was succeeded by his adopted son, Ibrahim Pasha. It was 
by Ibrahim that his great victories over the Turks were principally ob- 
tained. He was installed by the porte viceroy of Egypt, but died at Cairo, 
Nov. 9, 1848. He was succeeded by Abbas Pasha, grandson of Mehemet 
Ali. Abbas Pasha became viceroy of Egypt in 1848. He was a cruel and 
capricious ruler. He dismissed the Europeans in state service and frus- 
trated much of Mehemet's good work ; but he successfully resisted Turkish 
attempts to lower the condition and prestige of Egypt, and assisted the Sul- 
tan in the Crimean war. It was supposed that he fell by the hand of an 
assassin, A. D. 1854. 

Ismail Pasha, Viceroy and Khedive of Egypt, was born at Cavo, Egypt, 
1830; is the second son of Abrahim Pasha, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. 
He was educated in Paris (hence his partiality for that nation). On his 
return to Egypt he was appointed by his uncle, said Pasha, to the govern- 
ment of the country during his uncle's absence in Europe, and in 1863 he 
succeeded as the fifth viceroy of Egypt. During the American war of the 
rebellion he acquired vast wealth by the production of cotton. Regarding 
the Suez canal of Count de Lesseps as conducing to the powers and re- 
sources of Egypt, he actively encouraged the enterprise, having in it 176,602 
shares out of 400,000 (these were sold to the British government for £4,000,- 
000). In 1866 he secured from the Sultan the hereditary succession in his 
line, and in 1867 had conferred on him the title of khedive (sovereign). Not 
satisfied with these privileges he demanded more, threatening to withdraw the 
troops he had sent against the Cretan insurgents, and to seize Crete if his 
demands were refused. By the advice of foreign powers he withdrew his 
demands. But in 1868-69, by extending his rule over the upper and White 
Nile, by making foreign loans for the increase of his army and navy, by 
proposing the neutralization of the Suez canal and inviting foreigners to be 
present at its opening, he made himself almost an independent sovereign. 
The Sultan commanded him to reduce his army, recall his orders for iron- 
clads and breech-loaders and the contraction of foreign loans, threatening 
him with deposition if he refused. 

Not receiving expected aid from Russia and other powers, he sub- 
mitted. Afterwards he received new prerogatives, giving him control of 
his army, and liberty to make loans and commercial treaties. In 1874 he 
obtained a victory over the Sultan of Darfur, Central Africa. By public 
roads, agriculture, and other methods, he endeavored to civilize the sur- 
rounding rude tribes, and introduced many and various public improve- 
ments. But in 1879 the governments of France and England, in view of 
the wretched financial condition of Egypt, and the dissatisfaction of the 
people with the administration, determined to interfere in behalf of good 
government, and united in demanding of the Porte that the Khedive 
should commit the portfolios of finance and public works to English and 
French ministers, but the Khedive resented any interference of the western 
powers with Egyptian affairs. The Sultan ofifered to depose Ismail Pasha, 



364 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and to appoint Halim Pasha, Ismail's uncle, as his successor, but the 
powers advised the Khedive to abdicate, promising to support his son 
Tewfik. The Sultan acquiesced in the course recommended, and, June 26, 
he signed the firman deposing the Khedive in favor of his son, prince 
Mohammed Tewfik I. Ismail at once complied with the demand, and his 
son was proelaimed Khedive as Tewfik I. Ismail received an annual 
allowance of £50,000; each of his sons, Hassan and Hussein £20,000; and 
his mother £30,000. Total $576,000. Ismail Pasha left Egypt June 30, for 
Naples. He went to Rome where he makes his principal home, which 
gives him luxurious ease, away from the cares and perplexities of public 
life. 

What right, it may be asked, had France and England to interfere with 
the domestic government of Egypt? We answer. The right of power and 
self-interest. England and France had become the principal stock holders 
of the Suez Canal. Ismail, by his prodigality was doing great injustice to 
their commercial interests, and because they had power over the Sultan, in 
consequence of the aid they had rendered the Ottoman empire in the 
Crimean war, they took the liberty of using that power for the promotion 
of their Egyptian interests. The course which these two powers took with 
the Sultan, demonstrates the problem of Ottoman supremacy ; that it was 
then in the hands of France and England — for purposes which time is 
rapidly developing. England has long held India; and should national 
revolutions be such as to give France possession of Farther India, to France 
and England the Suez Canal, or Canals (as it may soon be) would be of 
vital importance. If, then, Russia is aiming at Chinese and Indian mono- 
poly, the east end of the Mediterranian Sea must be under the control of 
the western powers (England and France particularly). This cannot be if 
Russia be allowed to overthrow and absorb the Ottoman empire. These 
points will come up under other phases. 

We have already narrated the last struggle of the Ottoman empire with 
Russia, and have seen its disastrous results to the Turkish empire; yet that 
empire stands, and will stand as the nominal custodian of the eastern high- 
ways, and the guardian of the sacred localities, as long as the British empire 
can sustain her, England is bound to protect Turkey's Asiatic possessions. 
This she cannot do if she allows Russia to occupy Constantinople. It was 
the British fleet near the Turkish Capital, that, in the last war, prevented 
the Russians from moving on to Constantinople, when at Adrianople. The 
interests of western Europe will never allow Russia to absorb the Ottoman 
empire. Neither will the interests of Christianity or Mohammedanism 
suffer such a catastrophe. 

Since the Turko-Russian war and the settlement of the Ottoman 
"boundaries as agreed upon at the Berlin Congress in 1878, Turkey has 
had many difficulties with her own subjects in reconciling them to the 
new order of things. The principal uprising, however, has been in Otto- 
man Egypt. Under the administration of the Egyptian province by the 
Khedives and viceroys, commencing with Mehemet Ali, that chief officer 
first as viceroy, then as Khedive (sovereign) Egypt has had but little to do 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 365 

with the Turkish Sultan, and, we may say that the English and French 
saved the life of the Ottoman empire, when so severely attacked by Me- 
hemet Ali. Since those days the Sultan has been careful to secure the 
friendship of the British, and therefore followed British instructions. The 
causes of the late Eg3'ptian uprising which was under the control of Arabi 
Pasha, may be outlined as follows : 

Ismail held the Soudan " by a hand of steel though gloved in velvet." 
He had ruled Egypt in all its dependencies with watchful energy, and had 
put down one base pretender in Soudan, by sending against him a regiment 
of three battalions with artillery and cavalry. Ismail was too watchful of 
Egyptian rights, and too energetic to submit to foreign interference. But 
England and France were the two great powers representing his bond- 
holders, who fearing the safety of their bonds, if Egypt should be any 
longer under the control of Ismail, had him deposed and exiled, and his 
son Tewfik I. put in his place. Not possessing the experience and power 
of his father, he submitted to the dictation of these foreign national bond- 
holders. Tewfik was restrained by England and France whenever he at- 
tempted to act with vigor, for fear that any vigorous action by an increased 
expense would absorb the interest of their bonds. The ministers of State 
under the Khedive Tewfik were foreigners; and the admistration was 
under foreign control — "Carpet-Baggers "'in the estimation of the native 
population. The jealousy of the Egyptians joined to their deadly hostility 
to Christianity, produced an uprising among the lower classes. And as the 
administration of Tewfik was under the entire control of the English, there 
commenced an active rebellion against the government, which involved 
more or less the whole Ottoman empire. This rebellion was under Arabi 
Pasha as its commanding spirit. The Egyptian government, not being 
able to put down the rebellion, called on the British power to aid in crush- 
ing the rebel forces, which was accomplished in one general engagement. 
Arabi Pasha was taken and banished from Egypt to Ceylon, where he still 
resides. A brief sketch of the Ottoman Empire, as it now is, will close our 
remarks for the present, on the Ottoman Phase of the Eastern Question. 
In the conclusion of our work we shall examine the struggles of the nations 
for the supremacy, both in a civil and religious aspect. We shall view them 
as a triple empire, resisting the Stone Kingdom or the Kingdom of Mes- 
siah : viz. the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, these three, combin- 
ing and marshaling to battle, all the Satanic elements. 

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AS IT NOW IS. 

Much is said relative to the weakness and decay of the Turkish empire. 
We shall treat the subject under two chief divisions: (1) Its power as an 
independent nation ; (2) its delegated or official power. 

(1). Its power as an independent Gentile nation. We shall consider 
(a) its size ; (6) its resources; and (c) its absolute vitality. 

(a). Size op the Turkish Empire. — Since the Berlin Conference in 
1878, its European territory has been quite limited. Turkey in Europe 



366 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

comprises the following : (1) the immediate possessions, including Con- 
stantinople, the vilayets of Monaster, Salonica, the isles, and Crete, and 
part of Janina and Adrianople, 64,000 square miles; population 5,350,000; 
(2) Autonomous province of Eastern Roumelia, 15,000 square miles and 
1,000,000 inhabitants; (3) Provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adminis- 
tered by Austria, 22,000 square miles ; population 1,350,000 ; (4) tributary 
principality of Bulgaria, 33,000 square miles; population 2,000,000. Total 
of Turkey in Europe 135,000 square miles; population 10,000,000. The 
Berlin Congress made but little change in Asiatic Turkey. Some few posi- 
tions were given to Russia, such as Batum, Kars, Ardahan; and parts of 
Turkish Armenia. These were ceded to Russia in 1878. Khotour, east of 
lake Van, was ceded to Persia. Late events in Egypt have demonstrated 
the weakness of the Ottoman empire in Africa. The internal resources of 
the Ottoman empire are vastly diminished since the late aggressive move- 
ments of Russia, though but little of that empire has fallen into the hands 
of the northern autocrat. Turkish industries, manufactures and trade, 
since the late Russian war, have dwindled to about one-third of its former 
dimensions. The countries which trade with Turkey are, in order of im- 
portance, Persia, Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Egypt, etc. The 
ports of the empire are, Constantinople, Trebizond, Smyrna. Previous to 
the war of 1878 the value of the Turkish imports were estimated at £18,- 
500,000, ($88,000,000), and her exports £10,000,000, ($48,000,000). The 
mercantile marine of Turkey is quite small. In 1877 there were 230 sea- 
going vessels (about a dozen of them steamers) ; tonnage 34,800 tons. In 
1878 there were over 780 miles of railway completed in European Turkey, 
and 175 in Asia. 

Population. — Of the races which compose the Ottoman empire, history 
makes the following summary : " A more heterogeneous aggregation of 
races than that which constitutes the population of the Turkish empire 
can hardly be conceived, Turks, Greeks, Slavs, Roumanians, Albanians, 
are largely represented, besides Armenian, Jews, Circassians, etc., and 
Frank residents. In European Turkey, the Turks are estimated at 2,200,- 
000; the Slavs, including the Bulgarians at 1,250,000; and the Roumanians 
at 1,000,000. Then in Asia, there may be 450,000 Turks, not to speak of 
those in Africa; of the Turkomans 100,000; of Kurds 1,000,000; and of 
Syrians 190,000— all in Asia: 1,000,000 Greeks; 2,400,000 Armenians 
(partly in Europe) ; as well as Jews, Arabs (in Asia and Africa, Druses, 
Franks, or Western Christians, Gypsies, Tartars, Circassians and other 
kindred races, Copts, Nubians, Berbers, etc. Of these, the Greeks and 
Armenians are traders; the Slavic people and the Albanians are the chief 
agriculturists in Europe, and the Osmanlis, Armenians, Syrians and Druses 
in Asia. Of the whole population about 25,000,000 are Mohammedans, and 
15,300,000 Greek and Armenian Christians. The total population of the 
empire (57,415,616 before the late war, now reduced to 50,300,000) makes 
the empire powerful as to population. 

The government of Turkey has always been an absolute despotism. 
A constitution was granted in 1876, and was revoked in 1878, it having 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 367 

been only nominal. Still the power of the Sultan (called padishah, 
grand seignior, khan, and hunkiar), is limited by the Sheikh-ul-islam, the 
chief of the Ulemas (theological jurists in Turkey), who has the power of 
objecting to any of the Sultan's decrees, and often has more authority over 
the people than his sovereign, since he is the legal expounder of the 
Koran. The supreme head of the administration, and next in rank to 
the Sultan, is the grand vizier (sadri-azam), the prime minister, under 
whom are the members of the cabinet or divan, namely, the presidents of 
the supreme council of state and of the tanzimat, the seraskier, the high 
admiral, and the other heads of departments of the administration. There 
are governors of provinces and districts. Each district is composed of 
villages and hamlets. Turkey has introduced the system of tax collec- 
tion followed in western Europe, which has diminished extortion formerly 
practiced throughout the empire. 

The established religion of the Ottoman empire is Islamism (Moham- 
medanism). This, by Mohammed, was claimed to be the only orthodox 
creed existing from the beginning of the world and preached by all the 
prophets ever since Adam. It is called Islam, resignation, entire submis- 
sion to the will and precepts of God. All religions, however, are now 
tolerated. Since 1856, a Musselman has been free to change his religion at 
pleasure, without becoming liable to capital punishment, as was formerly 
the case. Education was long neglected, as they in their highest pros- 
perity were unwilling to follow Christian practices. In 1847 a new com- 
mon school system was introduced. Since that time schools have been 
established throughout the empire. Higher education has received atten- 
tion, and colleges for the teaching of medicine, agriculture, naval and mili- 
'tary science, etc., have been erected. Still, instead of patronizing their 
own institutions, many wealthy Turks send their sons to France or Britain 
to be educated. The Turks, therefore, become more and more assimilated 
in modes of thought, in their dress, manners and customs, to the en- 
lightened nations of western Europe. The Ottoman Turk resembles the 
Caucasian race rather than their Mongolian ancestors, owing to the prac- 
tice of inter-marrying. Such has been the power of European associa- 
tions for the last four centuries, that the Ottoman is a European empire 
rather than Asiatic. 

The Ottoman empire has within itself elements of national power. 
(1) in her soil and climate ; (2) in her people ; (3) in her religion ; (4) 
and in her locality. Her religion commands the strength of the Otto- 
man world, including a population of 180,000,000. It seems doubtful if 
that empire can fall till Islamism is overthrown. It is sustained by a 
royal priesthood, the Sultan being a royal high priest. He is the supreme 
head of church and state, and can, therefore, command the power of the 
Islam world. Turkey, like all European nations, is laboring under the 
effects of an oppressive debt. In 1876 the Turkish government announced 
that no more interest payments would be made till the internal affairs 
of the empire should allow it. The enormous expenditure of the war, 
and the loss of valuable provinces, have only added to the utter disorgani- 
zation of Turkish finances. 



368 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The revenue in 1878-79 could not exceed £15,000,000 ($72,000,000), 
while, with a proportion of the war expenses to clear off, the outlay must 
amount to about £50,000,000 ($240,000,000). Up to 1874, from 1854, four- 
teen loans had been made to meet deficiencies At that time the foreign 
debt of Turkey amounted to £184,981,733 ($887,212,584). The internal 
and floating debt is about £75,000,000 ($360,000,000). The government 
has issued vast quantities of paper money to the nominal value of about 
£90,000,000 ($405,000,000). The Ottoman navy is not large. In 1878 she 
had 15 armor-clad vessels, 18 smaller iron-clads (including 11 monitors a^^d 
Danube gun-boats), and 45 other steamers. The two largest iron-clads 
have a tonnage of 9,140 tons, and armor 12 inches in thickness at the 
water-line. 

The regular army (nizam) of the reserve and of irregular troops, the 
nizam contains 44 regiments of infantry, 27 regiments of cavalry, 7 regi- 
ments of field artillery, and a brigade of engineers. The irregular troops 
comprise 16 regiments of gensd'armes, the now notorious Bashi-Bazouks 
(volunteer infantry receiving from the government only arms and am- 
munition), and volunteer cavalry. The law of 1869 contemplated an active 
army of 220,000 men, with 80,000 in the first reserve, 420,000 men in the 
second reserve, and the hiyade or landsturm. Military service of 20 years 
(of which 4 are spent in the active army) is obligatory on all Moslems. 
By the statistics which we have given the national vigor or weakness of 
the Ottoman empire may be readily ascertained. The principal strength 
of that empire lies without itself; it is external and official. Its official 
location is the element of its strength. Its internal weakness may con- 
stitute, by its office, an element of strength. An apostle expresses the 
thought in these words : " When I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor. 
xii. 10. The idea is this, "I am well pleased with bodily weaknesses, with 
insults, with poverty, with persecutions, with distresses for Christ's sake; 
because, when I am most oppressed with these evils, then I am strong ; my 
ministry is most successful through the power of Christ dwelling upon me," 
"the power of Christ may dwell upon me," (vs. 9) "the original word 
literally signifies, ' pitch its tent over me,' cover me all over, and abide on 
me continually." — Macknight. A nation upheld by Jehovah for a special 
purpose will be kept in that office till the work is accomplished. The weaker 
that officer becomes the greater the Divine aid. This is evident. 

(2) The proposition we are about to discuss is the following : The 
strength of the Ottoman empire lies in its official position. While it con- 
tinues to be Custodian, Guardian, and Avenger, in the purposes of the Al- 
mighty, it will be upheld, both by direct and indirect agencies. This posi- 
tion it is useless to attempt to controvert. We have many examples in the 
Bible illustrative of such Divine interposition to carry out certain fixed 
purposes. Two of these will be sufficient for illustration. 

(1) Menephthes, the Amenophis of Manetho, and the Pharaoh of the 
Exodus, is an example. "And in very deed for this (cause) have I raised 
thee up, for to shew (in) thee my power; and that my name may be de- 
clared thoughtout all the earth." Ex. ix. 16. God had placed before him 



OTTOMAN PHASE. 369 

elements which developed his wicked heart, during the plagues, and al- 
lowed him to follow the Hebrews, that His judgments might be executed in 
the sea. 

(2) Abraham's seed served in a strange land while the Amorites were 
filling their cup. When that cup was full, in the fourth generation, Egypt 
was judged and the Hebrew bondage was terminated. 

(3) Cyrus was an illustrious example of God's official work. Follow 
the history of Cyrus through the two great divisions of his life, (a) from 
his birth to the fall of Babylon; (6) from the fall of Babylon to his 
death. During the first period Cyrus was God's pupil and prime minister 
in the overthrow of the Jews' oppressor. In the latter division he was 
Cyrus in his own proper person; Cyrus in retirement. A nation is om- 
nipotent till the expiration of his term of office;' he then retires into his 
own private shell and soon turns to a fossil. 

The four horns that scattered Israel and Judah were resistless till their 
missions were accomplished. 

No person reads history to any profit that does not follow these Divine 
footsteps. God in history is a true, a noble thought. Who can read :>! 
great national movements, conflicts, and overthrows without searching 
into their philosophy. To Him there is no chance accident, or simple for- 
tune. Every national movement is under the shaping control of the Su- 
preme Ruler. Every event shapes afiairs into Divine forms. They are 
then arranged into systems which tend to a unity of plan in Jehovah's ar- 
rangements to control the movements. 

It is not God's usual method to interfere directly with human aflairs. 
He uses one nation to carry out one division of his plans, another nation is 
raised up for another purpose. Still all have their spheres, and, as the 
heavenly bodies are held in their orbits by certain forces while they move 
on in their celestial mission, in like manner nations are held to the 
fields of their legitimate and purposed work. All nations have their 
work and their appointed fields. Out of these fixed orbits their agency 
is human and feeble. Who can doubt this position ? Who can doubt 
the location of Russia's field and work ? Whence comes that power to 
the mountains of Israel? Is it not from the north? But if that empire 
is allowed to absorb the Ottoman empire before the Hebrews are erected 
into a nation, will it own the land of Israel? And if the Russian once 
holds the land what nation can drive out the northern bear ? The Otto- 
man empire was raised up to hold back the north so soon as the Greek 
empire became too feeble, till the King of the South should be prepared to 
aid and defend that middle empire, against the King of the North, till the 
Hebrews, by colonization and union of these un walled villages, become 
rich and powerful. This central nation, this hub of the great national 
wheel remains to be examined. In that examination Turkey will again 
claim our attention. We shall close the Ottoman Phase by a few gen- 
eral remarks which are designed further to illustrate the Turk's official 
position. 

(1) Following up the idea that each nation has its specific location 
24 



370 . THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and work, and that God designs to hold them to their location and work, 
we say (a) that Russia was held back to the north (1) by the Grecian 
chordon, (6) When their power became too feeble a new people (Ottoman 
Turks) was placed in that responsible station, has held it for four centuries, 
(c) When that power became too weak in itself to defend the chordon a 
new thought (balance of power) combined the western European nations 
to aid in sustaining the Ottoman empire and keep back the north, (d) 
That congress will sustain the Ottoman empire against annihilation till 
the British empire acquires sufl&cient strength in the East to sustain the 
Turkish empire in Asia, and protect the Hebrews fully in their coloniza- 
tion scheme. These colonies are composed of Jews, having a few of the 
ten tribes as companions, (e) That the British empire will soon hold that 
advanced position, will appear from the following : " By the ' conditional 
convention ' made between Turkey and the United Kingdom, the English 
government undertakes to defend the porte's dominions in Asia, and re- 
ceives in return the right to occupy and administer the island of Cyprus." 
This conditional agreement evidently points out the line of the British 
eastern policy towards the Ottoman empire. 

We now have before us three empires, the Russian, the British, and 
the Ottoman ; the northern, the southern, and the middle ; the dragon, the 
beast, and the false prophet. Paganism will exist as long as there are na- 
tions to defend those idolatrous systems; apostate Christianity will continue 
while there are nations of the Latin and Greek families to uphold it; and 
Islamism will continue as long as there is an Ottoman empire, or Moham- 
medan nations to sustain it; and this triple empire will array all the 
Satanic elements against Messiah and His kingdom. 

While we admit that the Ottoman empire is declining in its individual 
internal strength, in its official position, it has all the strength of the 
powers that defend it. When Moses was commanded to extend his rod 
over the sea, his arm was sustained. So will God sustain the Ottoman 
empire in its official work till His mission shall be accomplished, With- 
out that middle empire the Jewish colonization scheme would evidently be 
a failure. How can the return of Israel and Judah be reconciled with Rus- 
sian occupancy of the land of Palestine ? 



HEBREW PHASE. 



The origin, early history, character, and destiny of the Hebrew family 
are developed in sacred and profane history. To these fountains of light 
we shall resort to enable us to furnish a full expose of the Hebrew Phase of 
the Eastern Question. God has presented the history of that people in 
plain narrations, and in a great variety of figures and symbolic representa- 
tions. We shall, therefore, draw liberally from these divine sources. Je- 
hovah was pleased to reveal to Isaiah, Jeremiah Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, and 
Zechariah, a very full history of the Hebrew family. In order, therefore, 
to understand their future, we must learn from the Bible their family and 
national relations to Jehovah and to the other divisions of the human race. 
The earth was made for man's special dwelling place. Whether he is 
always to be confined exclusively to this globe, or have a wider range through 
the universe, is not so readily determined. It is our opinion, however, that 
the redeemed, in their mortal state, will be fully occupied with the fixtures, 
the beauties and the glories of their habitation. Christ went away to make 
ready a place. Celestial systems, sun, moon, and stars, have their orbits, 
in which they move, and from which they could not deviate without con- 
fusion. Man was made with such a clay system as did not allow him to 
leave home on visits to other planets. God has seen fit to. commit his mes- 
sages of a more extended nature to a higher order of beings. We presume 
that the man, in his highest type, will remain at home. He will constitute a 
pure and happy family, a holy nation. We are now about to trace the 
origin, location, character, and destiny of the central family of the nation, 
the hub of the national wheel, while the Gentile farnilies form its spokes 
and rim, God's immutable purpose being its axle. 

That God had a right to locate the nations, according to His will, will 
be admitted ; that He did so fix their special habitations, is positively de- 
clared, " When (after the flood — W.) the Most High divided to the nations 
their inheritance. When lie separated the sons of Adam, He set the 
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. 
For the Lord's portion (is) His people; Jacob (is) the lot of his inherit- 
ance. With this we will associate a similar passage from the New Testa- 
ment: — "God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing He is 
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 
neither is worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything, 
seeing He giveth to all life and breath, and all things; and hath made 
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their 
habitation." Deut. xxxii. 8. 9, and Acts xvii. 24-26. After the flood the 
earth was divided to the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 
To Shem (from whom Messiah, the true seed or heir, was to descend), was 

(371) 



372 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

divided southwestern Asia. Out of this division God reserves sufficient 
territory for the children of Israel. This He made the lot of His inherit- 
ance. Dr. Boothroyd thus expresses the meaning: "When God fixed the 
boundaries of other nations, He allotted also aland sufficiently large to con- 
tain the children of Israel; and He so favored them by revealing His will 
to them and dwelling among them that they may be said to be His own in- 
heritance." The Canaauites, therefore, were there by right of conquest, in 
reserved seats, to be surrendered to Israel the h^gal owners. This land, in 
its full extent, contained about 300,000 square miles. This was their home, 
and God's visible dwelling place on earth. On this territory was erected, 
first, a Theocracy, which continued about four centuries. God ruled that 
family under a succession of judges. This form of government being re- 
jected they chose a regal government, after the pattern of the Gentiles. 
Under three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon, the twelve tribes, like con- 
federate states, formed one nation.- Under Solomon's son Rehoboam, ten 
tribes formed a new nation under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. The ten 
tribes went into idolatry, and after continuing as a nation about 250 years, 
they were removed from their land into a captivity which still continues. 
The kingdom of Judah continued as a nation about 133 years longer when it 
was overthrown and removed into a 70 year's captivity. At the close of that 
period there was a return of a remnant of the two tribes, and the establish- 
ment of a remnant nation under Joshua and Zerubbabel, which continued 
mostly tributary and weak till its utter overthrow by the Romans, A. D. 70. 
Those that were not slain were carried into slavery. Since that time they 
have been sifted among the nations, a hissing and a curse (Jer. xxv. 18.), 
unto the present century. Have the Hebrews any national future? Each 
side of this question has its advocates. We affirm that they have a na- 
tional future, and that it is the chief and central figure of the world's future 
distinguished group of eastern nationalities. Hence we have a Hebrew 
Phase of the Eastern Question. This question will be discussed by the 
light of Revelation and of history. We affirm that the history of the He- 
brew family is given by Jehovah to men inspired to make a faithful his- 
torical record, and that such a record is found in the word of God. In 
tracing that history we shall find it necessary to demonstrate the difference 
between their past and their prophetic histories. We shall find it quite a 
laborious task to collect from the prophecies God's immutable purpose to- 
ward the Hebrew race. To do this it will be necessary to examine, more or 
less, into the divine object of the earth's formation, and dwelling place for 
man in his most perfect type of existence. The fall involved the earth as 
well as its invisible governor. " Cursed (is) the ground for thy sake. 
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." Gen. iii. 17. 18. The 
ruin of the fall was universal. It involved the entire globe, including its 
atmosphere, with every species of organic life: the whole "creation" The 
first intimation, of the result of the terrible struggle now commencing be- 
tween the two seeds, that of the woman and of the serpent, has God for its 
author, in these words : " And enmity I will put between thee and between 
the woman,! and between thy seed and between her seed: it shall bruise 



HEBREW PHASE. 373 

thy head; and thou shalt bruise him the heel." Gen. iii. 15. So barrne 
were the first sixteen and one-half centuries of man's existence on the 
earth, as to fruits of righteousness, that they did not average one in three 
centuries. Abel, Seth, Enoch, and Noah are its only examples on record. 
So totally estranged were they from their Creator that three centuries had 
nearly expired before a prayer was uttered or Jehovah called upon. To the 
time of the flood human life may be regarded a failure. Even upon the 
waters of the fatal deluge, where floated a single family of eight persons, 
with a righteous father, the seed of the serpent was coiled securely in the 
heart of the depraved Ham ; nor have we any special reasons to count but 
one out of eight as in the seed of the family of the holy. The old world, — 
being beyond the power of the Angel of Mercy, sank beneath the death- 
angel. Satan's influence over the human affections, during man's first 
era in his new abode, had but little opposition, the rays of light from 
the Sun of Righteousness had such an immense distance to travel, before 
reaching man in his utter degradation, that they were like the sun's rays 
on Uranus. So terrible was the fall that centuries passed before a single ray 
of hope could reach him. As we advance towards Messiah's triumphant 
reign light increases, though rejected and avoided by the masses. 

Since the deluge the old hatred between the seeds has resulted in an 
endless variety of conflicts, Satan usually claiming the victory. The grand 
Satanic combinations, which date back with the origin of the Hebrew 
family, are clearly symbolized by the metallic image of Dan. ii. 31-44. 
The triumph of the Messiah is represented by a stone dashing the image 
to dust, and as a mountain filling the whole earth. To the four great 
monarchies of this image add the early Egyptian empire, and we have 
the first Gentile enemies of the Hebrew family. 

Our great object in delineating the Hebrew Phase is to place that 
people in their true position in the world's history. We shall aim to 
discover their office and work: God's intent in bringing them into being, 
and in locating them in Palestine. Why He allotted to the nations their 
fields, relative to the number of the children of Israel; why He will make 
an end of all nations, but not an end of Israel. 

We shall aim to make clear their entire mission, past and future. 
What relationship they bear to God and to the Gentile familes. We pur- 
pose also to examine into the causes and results of their various expatria- 
tions. 

The Gentile, in his selfishness, is ready to complain of the course which 
the Almighty has seen fit to pursue relative to the formation, settlement, 
and government of the earth. Why has He made such a vast difference in 
soil, climate, and people? Why has He reserved a country for the He- 
brews? Why has He allotted to other nations countries according to the 
number of that people ? Why such partiality? Should we not allow Je- 
hovah the privilege granted to ordinary mechanics ? The right to select 
at pleasure ? To construct and to guide? A mechanist forms a purpose to 
accomplish a certain work. He selects his material, constructs his machin- 
ery, and places it under his own or under delegated power. God had a 



374 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

purpose in His construction and peopling of the earth, and in its gov- 
ernment. And in carrying out His purpose He has a right to form and 
locate each member of His living machinery. Such attributes belong to 
Him as the Maker and Governor. 

As introductory thoughts, the following suggest themselves : (1) After 
the flood God divided the earth to the nations, according to some fixed 
purpose over which He had entire control. (2) That division was made 
according to the number of the children of Israel, allowing them space for 
increase. (3) The land had a specific location and boundary. (4) The 
promise to Abraham was a seed for a land. (5) Their occupation of the 
land was to be endless. It was to be an everlasting, or age (Messiah's) 
possession. (6) The past occupation of the land has been partial and tem- 
porary. (7) A temporary removal from that land, for punishment and for 
other purposes, does not invalidate their heirship. (8) Being banished 
from their own land to the territories of other nations, as intruders upon a 
foreign soil, they would there be liable to ill-treatment and to a final banish- 
ment. Yet they would still be heirs after the close of their chastisement. 
(9) The metallic image symbolizes the Gentile domination. (10) The stone 
symbolizes Messiah and His kingdom. (11) We have, therefore, in this 
one symbolic representation the history of the world from the days of 
Daniel to the final consummation of all prophetic events. (12) The Hebrew 
nation, restored, will be the central figure of the righteous families that con- 
stitute the universal kingdom of Messiah, the hub of Messiah's national 
wheel, or the sphere within the sphere. The investigation of the Scriptures 
will prove all these propositions, and will clearly demonstrate the character 
of the Hebrew Phase of the Eastern Question. 

The Hebrew family, in its progress towards universal empire, has de- 
veloped a very remarkable history. Its pathway from birth to endless 
dominion we propose to follow. Noting, as we progress, the peculiar care 
of its divine Guide and Instructor. Its history contains the following 
epochs: (1) Its sojourn in Egypt; (2) Its Wilderness life; (3) Its Theo- 
cracy ; (4) Its twelve-tribed Monarchy; (5) Its two nationalities; (B) Israel 
in its protracted captivity; (7) Judah from the captivity of Israel (B. C. 
720) to the Babylonian captivity; (8) Judah during the 70 years' captivity; 

(9) Judah from the close of the Babylonian captivity to the birth of Christ; 

(10) Judah from the birth of Christ to the fall of Jerusalem by Titus ; (11) 
Judah under her long banishment; (12) The return of Israel and Judah 
to Palestine, their union and universal empire under Jesus the Messiah. 
Under these twelve epochs we propose to describe the Hebrew family with 
a spirit of devout prayer that God would enable us to present their true 
history, and the divine purpose in their choice out of all the families of 
the earth. We claim equal attention to the following narration. 

(1) Its Egyptian epoch. That the sojourn of the children of Israel in 
the land of Egypt may appear in its true light, and their servitude shaded 
in its darkest colorings of disappointed hopes, we subjoin a list of the 
promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, relative to their seed, and 
the land where they were to be accomplished. We shall examine the 



HEBREW PHASE. 375 

original generic promise of a land to a seed, for an everlasting (age) pos- 
session. 

(1) And Abram passed through the land (Canaan, W.) unto the place 
of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite (was) then in 
the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, "Unto thy seed 
will I give this land ; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who 
appeared unto him." Gen. xii. 6. 7. This is the original generic promise, 
It is well to say : (1) That it was first made to Abram's seed. Paul said 
(Gal. iii. 16) that seed was Christ. It is very proper that Christ's name 
should head the list in this deed of the great Donor, as He is the Heir-in- 
Chief : Abram, Isaac and Jacob, whose names are inserted in the deed, are 
simply joint heirs. Their titles are worthless, without their interests in 
the merits of the Messiah. Christ the One Seed and royal heir. This will 
appear from other Scriptures: "Ask of me, and I shall give (thee) the 
heathen (for) thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth (for) 
thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash 
them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. ii. 8. 9. " Thou sawest till that 
a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image upon his feet, 
(that were) of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces, then was the iron, 
the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and 
became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind car- 
ried them away, that no place was found for them, and the stone that smote 
the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth;" inter- 
preted as follows: "And in the days of these kings (Kingdoms — W.) shall 
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and 
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, (but) it shall break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Dan. ii. 34. 
35. and 44. " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, (one) like the Son of 
man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
they brought Him near before Him, and there was given Him dominion 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should 
serve Him : His dominion (is) an everlasting dominion, which shall not 
pass away, and His kingdom (that) which shall not be destroyed." Dan. 
vii. 13. 14. These are samples of the nature and dignity of the Chief heir. 
In Deut. xxxii. 8. 9., where the Most High divided to the nations their in- 
heritance, the land is not specified ; but in the deed, given to the seed and 
the joint heirs the land is named. Other elements come to light as the 
promise is repeated. 

(2) "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that lot was separated from 
him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, north- 
ward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which 
thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Gen, xiii. 14. 
15. By substitution the promise enunciated in Gen. xii. and xiii. will read 
as follows: "Unto Christ will I give this land: Unto Abram and Christ 
will I give it (the land — W.) for ever." The land is a donation to Messiah 
and Abram for ever. That the fulfilment of this promise is still future, is 
clear from the fact that neither the heir nor the joint heir has ever pos- 



376 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

sessed that land according to the conditions of the grant. It was said of 
Christ: "The foxes have holes, and the Birds of the birds of the air (have) 
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay (His) head." Matt. viii. 
20. He was put for three days in a borrowed tomb. Of Abraham, Stephen 
said. "And he gave him none inheritance in it (the land deeded to him — 
W.), no, not (so much as) to set his foot on : yet he promised that he would 
give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when (as yet) he 
had no child." Acts vii. 5. Paul said : "And these all (Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, etc. — W.), having obtained a good report through faith, received not 
the promise." Heb. xi. 39. Paul taught the promise contained a resur- 
rection. "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise 
made of God unto our fathers. Unto which (promise) our twelve tribes, 
instantly serving (God) day and night, hope to come. For which hope's 
sake. King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought 
a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" Acts xxvi. 
6. 7. 8. Irenoeus, a disciple of Polycarp, a disciple of John, and also other 
fathers of the Christian Church, taught the following, relative to the Abra- 
hamic promise: God promised to Abraham and his seed, the land of 
Canaan as an everlasting possession ; but since they did not thus possess it 
during their natural life, they must be raised from the dead, to have the 
land as promised ; hence, the promise contains a resurrection. The second 
enunciation is to Abraham and his seed, for ever; or, for the age (evidently 
Messiah's age — W.). These elements of the promise must be carefully 
noted. 

(3) Third enunciation. "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed 
after thee, the land wherein thou (Abraham — W.) art a stranger, all the land 
of Canaan for an everlasting (age) possession ; and I will be their God." 
Gen. xvii. 8. The land is defined. Canaan. It is the age (Messiah's) pos- 
session. Abram's name is changed to Abraham, Father of many nations. 
The covenant of circumcision is instituted. The elements are, deed of a 
land, a seed, an everlasting possession. This last element requires a resur- 
rection. 

(4) Fourth enunciation. Made to Isaac. "Go not down into Egypt 
(on account of the famine — W.) ; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee 
of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee ; for 
unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will per- 
form the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father ; and I will make 
thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all 
these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
blessed." Gen. xxvi. 3. 4. Ishmael is excluded from the line of heirship. 
"I will perform the oath, which I swore unto Abraham thy father." His 
father is now dead; and, as Stephen said, died without having enough "to 
set his foot on." Abraham must have the land in Messiah's age, beyond 
his resurrection. As Abraham and Isaac are joint heirs with Messiah, they 
will have that land under Messiah, the one Seed and Chief heir, and not 
before Him, as joint heirs will not precede the Chief heir. 

(5) Fifth enunciation. To Jacob. "And behold, the Lord stood above 



HEBKEW PHASE. 377 

it (the ladder — W.) and said I (am) the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, 
and the God of Isaac ; the land, whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, 
and to thy seed. And tljy seed shall be as the dust of the earth ; and thou 
shalt spread abroa'd to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to 
the south, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed. And behold, I (am) with thee, and will keep thee in all (places) 
whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not 
leave thee, until I have done (that) which I have spoken to thee of." Gen. 
xxviii. 13. 14. 15. Here Esau is rejected, and Jacob is in the line of the 
seed. In the famine of B. C. 2081, Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn 
there. Gen. xii. 10. During this famine, which was 177 years later, Isaac 
is commanded not to go down into Egypt. God foresees that such a resi- 
dence would interfere with his purposes, relative to the sojourn of Jacob 
and his posterity in the land of Egypt. 

The partiality of Jacob for his son Joseph marked the beginning of 
that chain of special providences that resulted in the removal of Jacob into 
the land of Ham. It is said that Israel (Jacob under his new name — W.) 
loved Joseph- more than all his children, because he (was) the son of his 
old age; and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren 
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated 
him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. Gen. xxxvii. 3. 4. God 
makes use of human frailties to carry out His own purposes. The parti- 
ality of Jacob excited the jealousy of his other sons, which begat an un- 
governable hatred towards their brother. Here commences the peculiar 
developments and extraordinary life and character of Joseph. The posi- 
tion God designed for Joseph is clearly set forth in Jacob's final blessing : 
" Joseph is a fruitful bough, (even) a fruitful bough by a well ; (whose) 
branches run over the wall; the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot 
(at him), and hated him ; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of 
his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty (God) of Jacob; 
(from thence (is) the shepherd, the stone of Israel;) (even) by the God of 
thy Father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee 
with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, 
blessings of the breasts and of the womb ; the blessings of thy father have 
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of 
the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the 
crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. These 
blessings belong to Joseph and his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. 

The second cause of jealous hate came from God and was a develop- 
ment in His providence to preserve Israel, His seed, from a protracted 
famine. " Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told (it) his brethren ; and 
they hated him yet the more. Joseph was not at fault in dreaming (since 
that was from God), but he might have kept it to himself. Such, however, 
was not God's purpose, since it was a link in the chain. The dream was 
readily understood by his brethren, for they answer : shalt thou indeed 
reign over us? Shalt thou have dominion over us? Joseph had another 
dream, yet nearly of the same import. ' The sun, moon and stars made 



378 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

obeisance to me.' This was also understood. Jacob rebuked him. Shall 
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to 
thee on the earth ?" 

Another provocation was soon added, which shows how little the envy 
and the passions of men avail with God to divert Him from His undeviat- 
ing line of purpose. Jacob, desiring to know how his older sons succeeded in 
finding pasture for the sheep (as they were shepherds), sent his son Joseph 
to look after them, and bring him word of their success. Joseph, after 
some considerable hunt, found them in Dotham, in the vicinity of 
Shechem. Seeing him afar off, having on him that many colored coat 
of Joseph's vanity and his father's imprudence, they cried out, There 
comes the dreamer, let us put him to death ; then what will become of his 
dreams? How powerless is man when contending with his Maker! little 
did those wicked men think that those dreams were for their salvation, 
and that Joseph had left his tender and indulgent parent on that divine 
mission. Reuben said. Let us not kill the lad but cast him into this pit, 
hoping thereby to save him alive. Having stripped off his coat, they cast 
Joseph into this wilderness pit. 

Having accomplished the work of hate, they sat down to their food. 
What hard-heartedness ! ! that they could calmly eat bread under the agon- 
izing cries of their brother, as he entreated them not to leave him there to 
die. At this critical moment a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, 
with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry (it) 
down to Egypt. Judah, why should we slay our brother and conceal his 
blood ? Let us sell him to these spice merchants. Between these countries 
Midianites were also passing. Joseph was drawn out of the pit and sold to 
the Ishmaelites and taken into Egypt. An angel of mercy sold into servi- 
tude by his own brethren for twenty (pieces) of silver ! How singular are 
the ways of Providence. How severe are God's dealings with the human 
family to shape their acts and desires into His own purposes. Joseph, sent 
by his father to look after his older sons, is now on his way, as an Ishma- 
elite's slave, into the land of Ham. The sons of Jacob, in attempting to 
carry out their own wicked purposes, are accomplishing a vast scheme of 
mercy. " Thy way (is) in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and 
Thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest Thy people like a flock by the 
hand of Moses and Aaron." Ps. Ixxvii. 19. 20. 

The deception they practiced on their father relative to the fate of 
Joseph was artful and exceedingly wicked. That unfortunate coat of many 
colors stained with blood is presented to their father. That coat which he 
had taken so much pride in making for his favorite son is now covered 
with what is represented as the blood of Joseph devoured by wild beasts. 
In deep sorrow " Jacob rent his clothes and put sack-cloth upon his loins, 
and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daugh- 
ters rose up to comfort him ; but he refused to be comforted, saying, I will 
go down into the grave (sheol) unto my son mourning. Thus his father 
wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an 
officer of Pharaoh's, (and) captain of the guard." Gen. xxxvii. 33-36. 



HEBREW PHASE. 379 

We leave Jacob in deep affliction and follow Joseph as he makes his 
pathway to the right hand of Pharaoh, the acting governor of all Egypt. 
Joseph was peculiarly a man of destiny. From a lad of seventeen years 
dwelling with his father in Hebron till he was made known to his brethren 
in Egypt (21 years). He was about 39 years old when Jacob came into 
Egypt. About 20 years did Joseph serve. This was the second division of 
his life, that of servitude. This period was a remarkable era. Every act 
of Joseph during this time showed divine guidance. Joseph went up to a 
throne along a stormy path beset with " archers " grieving him, hating him, 
and shooting him. In the house of Potiphar by his fidelity he was made 
overseer; and all things were controlled by him. Potiphar's wife was the 
occasion of bringing Joseph into disrepute with his master ; but this was 
overruled in an extraordinary manner. The dreams of Pharaoh, chief of 
the fifteenth dynasty of shepherd kings, brought Joseph out of prison where 
he had been confined for two years. The dreams of any persons lower than 
a Pharaoh could not have released him from confinement. By divine ap- 
pointment Pharaoh dreamed ; and by the same power Joseph is made the 
interpreter, developing an event which requires special preparations to 
avert its fatal consequences. The dreams were a double symbol of the 
same events and time. The kine and ears (symbolized years), the fat kine 
and full ears represented seven years of plenty, the lean kine and blasted 
ears symbolized seven years of famine, which would consume the years of 
plenty. 

Pharaoh discerned at once the truth of Joseph's interpretation, and 
was convinced that this Hebrew was in favor with God, and that he 
(Joseph) would be the only suitable agent to see to this matter. Joseph 
was, therefore, appointed to this high office of executive trust. Where can 
there now be found such a monarch as this Pharaoh? Having implicit 
faith in the dreams and their interpretation, he puts himself directly to 
the work. "And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find (such a one) 
as this (is), a man in whom the Spirit of God (is)? And Pharaoh said 
unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, (there is) none 
so discreet and wise as thou (art) : thou shall be over my house, and accord- 
ing to thy word shall all my people be ruled ; only in the throne will I be 
greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I. have set thee 
over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand 
and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, 
and put a gold chain about his neck, and he made him to ride in the second 
chariot that he had, and they cried before, Bow the knee; and he made 
him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I 
(am) Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in 
all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath- 
pamneath (revealer of secrets) ; and he gave him to wife Asenath, the 
daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On ; and Joseph went over all the land 
of Egypt." And Joseph (was) 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, 
king of Egypt. In the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by 
handfuls, which Joseph had laid up in immense store houses throughout 



380 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the kingdom. And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of 
famine. The name of the first born he called Manasseh ; (forgetting) for 
God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house ; and the 
name of the second called he Ephraim (fruitful), for God hath caused me 
to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. Gen. xli. 38-51. 

The seven years of plenty being closed, the seven years of dearth be- 
gan to cast its mantel of pinching want over all the East. Yet in Egypt 
by the provident care of God by Joseph, there was bread. And all countries 
came into Egypt to Joseph for the purchase of corn, for the famine was 
severe in all lands. 

The news of plenty in Egypt reached Hebron the home of Jacob, who 
prepared his sons to go down into that land for the purchase of necessary 
provision. That trip was somewhat tragic in its closing results. The 
governor of Egypt was unknown to the Hebrews. Being a lad of only 17 
years when sold united with the thought that Joseph, if alive, was only a 
slave, put him beyond the power of their recognition, though they were 
immediately recognized by Joseph. 

Joseph addressed them with severity ; called them spies come to see 
the nakedness of the land. We are all one man's sons, come to purchase 
food. Thy servants (are) twelve brethren, the sons of one .man in the land 
of Canaan. The youngest is with our father, and one (is) not. 

The following circumstance which took place in the presence of Joseph, 
as also the dialogue, was never read without the deepest emotion Here 
were eleven brothers, ten of whom had neither seen nor heard of the 
eleventh, (now the governor of Egypt) since they sold him to the Midian- 
ites, the governor addressing them by an interpreter. Here follows the 
dialogue. "And they said one to another: We (are) verily guilty concern- 
ing our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought 
us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. And 
Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, do not sin 
against the child ; and ye would not hear ? therefore, behold, also his blood 
is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood (them), for he 
spake to them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them 
and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and 
took from them Simeon (as a hostage — W.) and bound him before their 
eyes." 

When these provisions were consumed, the famine continuing, another 
journey was undertaken, Benjamin being obliged, by the agreement, to 
form one of the sad party. The second interview with the governor was 
in its commencement painful and somewhat tragic. Their invitation to 
dine with the governor excited suspicion. The cup found in the sack of 
Benjamin, their return, and Joseph's making himself known to his 
brethren, are circumstances too familiar to require repetition. Joseph's 
dreams were fulfilled. Joseph's remarks to his brethren are so clear on the 
divine purpose relative to the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt, that we cannot 
omit them without our obscuring Hebrew narration. The Hebrews were 
God's peculiar people, His special family under His parental control. We 



HEBREW PHASE. 381 

look for that guiding hand in every movement. "And Joseph said unto his 
brethren, come near to me, I pray you; and they came near; and he said, 
I (am) Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be 
not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God 
did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years (hath) the 
famine (been) in the land ; and yet (there are) five years, in the which 
(there shall) neither (be) earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you 
to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great 
deliverance. So now (it was) not you (that) sent me hither, but God ; and 
He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a 
ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father 
and say unto him. Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of 
all Egypt; come down unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the 
land, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy 
children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast; 
and there will I nourish thee (for yet'(there are) five years of famine), lest 
thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. And ye 
shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen." 
After Jacob's death, Joseph said, "As for you ye thought evil against me, 
(but) God meant it unto good to bring to pass to save so much people." 

Jacob goes down into Egypt. The joy of Jacob at the news of Joseph's 
life and glory in Egypt, now the land of plenty, was like that of a happy 
resurrection. The invitation of his son to remove to that land added to 
the pleasure of the news that Joseph was still alive. Five years of famine 
yet to come, thought Jacob, will reduce me to extreme penury. I will 
accept of my son's very kind offers, and remove into Egypt. Prepara- 
tions are at once made and Jacob begins his journey. "Joseph my son (is) 
alive: I will go and see him before I die." Jacob's reflections on his 
journey from the land of promise to Egypt must have been somewhat 
peculiar. His vision of the ladder let down from heaven, the Lord stand- 
ing above it, angels of God ascending and descending upon it, and the 
voice of God saying, "The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, 
and to thy seed," these all were fresh in his memory. A protracted famine 
and the glory of his son in Egypt, and the invitation of Pharaoh with 
wagons and provisions, have induced him to leave that land, for a time at 
least, perhaps for the remainder of his life. These providences seemed to 
conflict with that made to Abraham and Isaac, and repeated to him in the 
ladder wilderness. These things troubled Jacob so as to disturb his sleep. 
A new revelation is necessary. This the Almighty gives him. "And God 
spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob ! And 
he said. Here (am) I. And He said, I (am) God, the God of thy father: 
fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great 
nation : I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring 
thee up (again) : and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes." Gen. 
xlvi., 2. 3. 4. Joseph shall be with thee to close thine eyes in death. 
Jacob now understands what God had said to Abram, "Know of a surety 
that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land (that is) not theirs, and shall 



382 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years ; and also that 
nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge : and afterward shall they come 
out with great substance. And thou shall go to thy fathers in peace ; thou 
(Abram — W.) shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth genera- 
tion they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not 
yet full." Gen. xv., 13-16. Abram is told of a servitude and its duration, 
and the cause of the delay in the occupancy of Canaan, but what land is 
not here stated. Jacob learns what before had been obscure, that Egypt 
was the land, and that he was now following the chain of fulfilment. 
How remarkably do these prophecies unfold ! What a change in Jacob's 
family has been required to keep it on the high way to the birth of the one 
seed! The promise is of aland to the one seed — Christ; then to Abram 
and the one seed. That Abram, a joint heir, might not think that he was 
to inherit that land before the chief heir, he was informed that he should 
die in good old age, and that his immediate posterity was to perform 400 
years of servitude, as no nation of the Canaanites was to be driven out 
until its cup was full. Let us now follow Jacob into Egypt. 

Pharaoh had said, "I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and 
ye shall eat the fat of the land." God had said, "Fear not to go down into 
Egypt : for I will there make of thee a great nation, I will go down with 
thee into Egypt." See, with what parental care God goes before, watches 
over and follows the family of the seed. It is His own family for the rea- 
son that the one seed, His Son, Messiah is to be born of that family and to 
gather out of it, especially with a multitude from all Gentile nations, a 
people which shall have universal and endless dominion over the earth. 
The workings of that Almighty power begin this early to loom up, a work- 
ing that will continue till the earth is full of God's glory. One other 
point, it is well here to notice the power that the Almighty possesses to 
shape kings and empires into such instruments as will be suited to accom- 
pl:'sh his own purposes. When he wants a home for his family he prints 
visions on the mind of its supreme ruler, and by a series of the most extra- 
ordinary events opens his heart to allow his people to settle and occupy 
the most productive part of his kingdom, but when the time comes for 
them to leave that country for a national home in their own land, a 
Pharaoh is raised up that knew not Joseph, and who by a series of terrible 
judgments, is obliged to thrust the Hebrews out of his land. 

Jacob being fully persuaded of his duty, left Canaan with his sons, 
and his sons' sons, his daughters and his sons' daughters, in all three score 
and six, with their cattle and their goods which they had gotten in the land 
of Canaan. Out of this family of 66 sou's God had promised to construct 
a great nation. That this pledge was redeemed will be fully seen the close 
of this epoch. 

Pharaoh's address and charge to Joseph are affectionate and liberal. 
" Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee ; the land of Egypt (is) 
before thee: in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to 
dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell, and if thou knowest (any) 
men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle." 



HEBREW PHASE. , 383 

Gen. xlvii., 5. 6. The hand of Providence is seen in their location — 
"Goshen," "in the best of the land." To make a great nation, a produc- 
tive soil is a very essential element. Soil, climate, and geographical posi- 
tion being favorable, an industrious, economical, and healthy people as 
was the family of Jacob, increase and prosperity are legitimate results. 
The land of Goshen was the garden of Egypt. Who can doubt the prime 
source of this kind arrangement? God, who had taken special charge of 
the Hebrew family, has brought them out of the severe famine of Canaan, 
and provided for them a home in this Eden of the Nile. Is not this a 
very noted providence ? They were removed to preserve life, and to raise 
up a great nation, in both of which particulars the land of promise was 
the very deficient. It may be of some moment to discover a reason for 
God's blessing the land of Egypt, and making it the home of his special 
family rather than Canaan, the land of the promise? The cup of the 
Amorites was not then full ; and till that was accomplished, the Canaan- 
ites could not be properly dispossessed, and as long as it remained under 
their domination it was liable to the curses, which are the legitimate fruits 
of wickedness. God made Egypt, at that time, the world's asylum, to 
furnish a home for Israel. To prepare that home, Joseph had been sent in 
advance. In this sense Joseph was "the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel." 
Gen. xlix., 24. Since he was the shepherd of Jacob's family, and the 
foundation of the nation of Israel, and in this manner an eminent type of 
Christ. 

Jacob's introduction and answer to Pharaoh are exceedingly interest- 
ing, since they illustrate patriarchal thought and manners. " The days of 
the years of my pilgrimago (are) a hundred and thirty years: few and evil 
have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the 
days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. 
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh." Gen. 
xlvii., 9. 10. 

Joseph settled his father and brethren in the land of Rameses (Goshen), 
the most fertile portion of Egypt. Joseph supplied them with necessary 
provisions. Joseph bought up for Pharaoh, in exchange for food, all the 
land of Egypt, except the land of the priests. 

"And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen ; 
and they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly." 
Gen. xlvii., 27. "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased 
abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceedingly mighty, and the land 
was filled with them." Ex. i., 7. "Thy fathers went down into Egypt 
with three score and ten persons : and now the Lord thy God hath made 
thee as the stars of heaven for multitude." Deut. x., 22. God had prom- 
ised to make of them a great nation, and here we have the record of its 
full accomplishment. How readily can the Almighty, the Father of life, 
bring to pass His own promises. This great famine, so terrible to the 
heathen, was turned to the advantage of his own Hebrew common wealth. 
It planted them in the richest garden of the earth, which caused them to 
multiply into a mighty nation. This embryotic Hebrew home was pro- 



384 , THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

vided by God with a view to their remarkable future. No other family- 
has ever had parental care equal to that of the Hebrews. Jacob lived in 
Egypt seventeen years — in all 147 years. The request of Jacob shows his 
unbroken love for the soil of promise. 

"And he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, if now I have 
found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand upon my thigh, and 
deal kindly and truly with me : bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. But 
I will lie with my fathers, and thou shall carry me out of Egypt and bury 
me in their burying-place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And 
he said, Swear unto me : and he swore unto him. And Israel bowed him- 
self upon the bed's head." Gen. xlvii., 24, 30. 31. 

The blessings of Jacob upon the sons of Joseph, as well as upon his 
own sons are truly prophetic. The elements of these special blessings will 
be noticed under their proper heads. One feature deserves present notice. 
Joseph's two sons which Jacob adopts as his own are (1) Manasseh, Joseph's 
first-born, and (2) Ephraim, God's first-born. Jer. xxxi., 9. In Ex. iv., 22. 
Thou (Moses, W.) shalt say unto Pharaoh. Thus saith the Lord, Israel 
(is) my son, (even) my first-born. Jacob crossing his arms in blessing 
Manasseh and Ephraim, clearly indicates a divine hand. "And Israel 
stretched out his right hand, and placed it upon Ephraim's head, who 
(was) the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his 
hands wittingly; for Manasseh (was) the first-born. After Jacob had said, 
God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which 
fed me all my life long unto this day. The angel (xxxii., 28) which 
redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on 
them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow 
into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Joseph, discovering what 
seemed to be a mistake, attempted to correct his father. But his father 
refused to change, saying, I know it, my son, he also (Manasseh) shall 
become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother 
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 
This point will be fully discussed under the American phase. God evi- 
dently guided Jacob in his prophetic blessings, as has been distinctly 
developed in the histories of Ephraim and Manasseh. Israel and Ephraim 
stand often for the same. It is said in Matt, ii., 15, "Out of EgyT:)t have I 
called my son." Hosea (Hos. xi., 1) is the prophet intended. "When 
Israel (was) a child then I loved him and called my son (Hebrew nation) 
out of Egypt." 

Since God calls himself the Father of the Hebrew family, collectively, 
that nation would be His first-born son, and His only begotten Son. And 
as Jacob was a joint heir, by Metonomy, the one can be substituted for the 
other. Ephraim often stands for Israel. Why Ephraim is called by God 
His first born instead of Manasseh will ap})ear in the sequel of their his- 
tory. In the death of Jacob, Joseph's brothers felt much alarm lest the 
"dreamer" should require of them an expiation for their unkind treat- 
ment ; but he showed them much affection, treating them as brothers. 

"And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house ; and Joseph 



HEBREW PHASE. 385 

lived one hundred and ten years." 93 years was he a resident of Egypt. 
And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third (generation) ; the chil- 
dren also of Manasseh were his tender care. "And Joseph said unto his 
brethren, I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this 
land, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying God will surely 
visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died^ 
(being) one hundred and ten years ; and they embalmed him, and he was 
put in a cofhn in Egypt." Gen. 1. 23-26. It has been suggested that thig 
coffin came out of the great pyramid erected by Joseph and remained in the 
king's chamber from Joseph's death to the time of the Exodus, from B. C. 
1635 to B. C. 1491 — 134 years. Yet the date of the erection of the pyramid 
is B. C. 2170, which is 425 years before the birth of Joseph. This is the 
chronology of the erection of the Great Pyramid according to Prof. Piazzi 
Smyth, as shown by the pole-star date. The theory of Mr. J. W. Redfield 
is faulty in many of its essential elements, which we can not now turn 
aside to discuss. 

One other element in the life of Jacob when about to die in Egypt, his 
faith relative to the land of promise. He made Joseph swear, saying, " Lo, 
I die; in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, 
there thou shalt bury me." Gen. 1. 5. Jacob's blessings on his own sons, 
and on the two sons of Joseph whom he had adopted, clearly demon- 
strate his faith in God's purpose to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac 
and himself; and since it was not accomplished in their natural lives, 
it being a possession belonging to Messiah's age, it would be fulfilled in 
the future, or age-life state. The resurrection of the true seed of Abraham 
was distinctly taught in the generic promise to the one seed, Christ, and to 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, joint heirs. The same faith appears in Joseph's 
request, to have his bones taken with them out of Egypt. They were in 
Egypt merely sojourners. Jacob and his family were not removed to Egypt 
to make that land their national home, but simply a protective and pre- 
paratory land ; a land where they could be saved from the famine, and 
which would sustain a dense population. Egypt was the home of the 
Hebrew nation in embryo. For further notice of the Hebrew sojourn in 
Egypt see Acts vii. (Stephen's defined, and Paul on the ancient worthies. 
Heb. xi). 

From the death of Joseph, B. C. 1635, to the year of their Exodus, B. 
C. 1491, history furnishes but few items relative to the Hebrews, but from 
circumstances we have reason to believe that they had for a time a career of 
great prosperity, and that, through their servitude, their women were ex- 
ceedingly prolific. They multiplied as fishes. It seems that God had their 
immense increase in His mind when he went down with them into Egypt. 
As fishes are conducted by unerring instinct (Divine power) out of the 
great waters into lesser streams, to multiply in places of security, in like 
manner were the Hebrews taken away from the idolatrous Canaanites to a 
land where, apart from otherpeople, they might rapidly grow into a power- 
ful nation. So soon as they had increased and arrived at the time of par- 
25 



386 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

turition Jehovah, their Almighty Chief, calls for their return to the land of 
promise. The events associated with their deliverance, briefly noticed, will 
conclude the Hebrew-Egyptian epoch. 

Their condition and direct cause of removal first claim special atten- 
tion, since they bring to view the watch-care of Jehovah. The occupation 
of the Hebrews (they were shepherds) was such as to make them a distinct 
people while in Egypt. The land of Goshen being assigned them they 
could there increase and were at liberty to follow their family calling and 
carry out the practices of their own peculiar institutions. 

Their increase and great national power seemed to excite the jealousy 
of the Egyptians. They had long been laborers for the Egyptians. They 
began to oppress the Hebrews, increasing their daily tasks, and adopted a 
policy to prevent their national increase by destroying the male ofifspring. 
This policy alienated the Hebrews from their Egyptian homes and caused 
them to sigh again for the freedom of their own native hills. Such treat- 
ment was necessary to alienate them from the pleasures of Egypt, and pre- 
pare them for the Exodus. While their oppression was becoming exceed- 
ingly painful, God was preparing them a deliverer. God accomplishes His 
purposes relative to mankind by visible human agencies. By such a visi- 
ble leader were the Hebrews to be conducted out of the land of bondage. 
The Egyptians were not willing to give up this nation of faithful slaves. 

They had to be made willing by a series of terrible judgments. That 
nation (the Egyptians) God judged, and that sore judgment was executed 
in a series of plagues. The name of the Hebrew deliverer was Moses 
(drawn out), because he was drawn out from the rushes on the banks of 
the Nile, where he had been secreted by his mother. Moses, as the adopted 
son of Pharaoh's daughter, was taught all the learning and wisdom of 
Egypt. Moses was not ignorant, however, of his nationality. He was a 
Hebrew of the house of Levi, called by Jehovah to conduct His people 
out of the house of bondage, unto a good land, and a large, unto a land 
flowing with milk and honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the 
Hittiles, and the Amorites, and Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Je- 
busites. Moses and Cyrus were remarkable types of Christ. Moses, the 
deliverer of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage ; Cyrus, God's shepherd 
to lead Judah out of the oppression of Babylon ; and Jesus to deliver 
His people out of the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory 
of the children of God. It is not, perhaps, necessary to trace Moses 
through the years of private life. Having slain an Egyptian, he fled to 
the land of Midian, where he kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, a 
Midian priest. In his occupation of a shepherd he sees a bush burning 
without being consumed. What a wonder is here ! — a bush in flames, yet 
not consumed, Moses draws near to the bush. A voice out of the bush 
says, Moses, Moses ! Moses says here (am) I. He was told to draw near in 
his bare feet, as the ground surrounding the bush was holy. Moses hid his 
face, when the voice said, I (am) the God of thy fathers, the God of Abra- 
ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God said that he had seen 
the affliction of His people in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of 



HEBREW PHASE. 387 

their task-masters. I am come down to deliver them from their Egyptian 
masters. Come, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thon mayest bring 
forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Many lessons are 
taught : (1) Here is a nation of slaves which the God of angels and of 
kings ; the God of the universe is not ashamed to call " My people." (2) 
God hears the cries of oppression, though they be so distant from His 
throne as this earth, even in Egypt. (3) God makes the executive judg- 
ments on one people to be the delivering angels of another people, though 
slaves. (4) God loves a righteous slave, far more than a tyrant mon- 
arch, though he be lord of empires. (5) What unbounded affection has the 
Almighty for the Hebrew family. It is His own peculiar people, joint 
heirs with His Son, under whom will commence the reign of righteous- 
ness. 

Moses uses various arguments with God to induce Him to release him 
from such an arduous task. The dialogue, protracted and interesting, re- 
sulted in Moses' accepting the commission, God promising to be with him, 
having his brother Aaron as his speaker. "And thou shalt speak words 
unto him, and put words in his mouth ; and I will be with thy mouth, 
and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he 
shall be thy spokesman unto the people ; and he shall be to thee instead 
of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God." Ex. iv. 15-16. Vs. 
17. "And thou shalt take this rod (Moses' cane, vs. 2 — W.) in thy hand, 
wherewith thou shalt do signs. Moses took leave of Jethro, and with his 
wife, sons, and Aaron, turned his face towards Egypt. Aaron and Moses, 
with his rod, were walking beside the ass that carried his wife and chil- 
dren ; a lone pedestrian, sent to deliver a nation of slaves from the iron 
grasp of task-masters, backed by the power of a mighty empire ; a weak 
thing to overcome the mighty. What a visible contrast ! a man in mid- 
dle age, with a cane, sent to manage and overcome an empire ! (1) to 
convince his own people of the divinity of his mission; (2) to overthrow 
the power of what was then the giant monarchy of the earth. The 
world has had its mighty chiefs and resistless conquerors, its Cyrus, 
Alexander, Tamerlane, and its Napoleon ; but in their conquests there 
was always a due ratio between the work and the visible instrument; 
but what ratio between this company leaving Midian for Egypt and the 
work assigned its pedestrian leader? What confidence, supreme, had 
Moses that the Almighty was with him I Talk of moral sublimity ! Where 
else can be found its equal ? It was not Moses, but God in Moses that 
•worked the wonders. Moses' cane had more power in it than Pharaoh 
with his warrior hosts. The weakness of the visible agency made the 
Almighty the more distin-ctly seen, and fully appreciated by Moses. 

The instructions of the commission was minute and distinct in every 
particular. Moses was instructed what to say and what to do; and was in- 
formed what would be the results. Pharaoh when afflicted would resist till 
God had inflicted upon him His executive judgments for the oppression of 
the Hebrews; after which they would be thrust out; then be followed 
and delivered by the waters of the sea. With what parental familiarity does 



388 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

God speak to Moses, and how affectionate the terms applied to His Hebrew 
family : " When thou goest to return into Egypt see (that) thou do all 
those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thy hand ; but I will 
harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say 
unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel (is) my son, (even) my first-born, 
And I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me ; and if thou re- 
fuse to let him go, behold I will slay thy son, (even) thy first-born." 
Ex. iv. 21-24. 

Moses went from the wilderness with Aaron (he having there joined 
him by the command of Jehovah) to visit his people in Goshen. All the 
elders of Israel were assembled, bofore whom the commission was explained, 
and the wonders performed before the people. The result was the conver- 
sion of the Hebrews to the Mission of Moses. 

Moses and Aaron then appear before Pharaoh, saying, "Thus saith the 
Lord God of Israel, Let my people go that they may hold a feast unto Me 
in the wilderness." They put the request in the mildest form possible. 
Pharaoh develops his heart in his answer : Who (is) the Lord that I 
(Monarch of Egypt — W.) should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know 
not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." x. v. 2. 3. God is said to have 
hardened Pharaoh's heart, and again that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. 
So the rays of the sun, after a shower, are said to soften one soil and 
harden another, still the property is in the soil and not in the sun's rays, 
for their qualities are the same in all kinds of soil. Pharaoh hardened his 
own heart by resisting God's orders. The immediate result of Moses' mis- 
sion was to double the Hebrew oppression. This caused the people to com- 
plain bitterly against Moses, " You have made our Savor to be abhorred in 
the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their 
hand to slay us." Moses presents the case to God, " For since I came to 
Pharaoh to speak in Thy name he hath done evil to the people, neither 
hast Thou delivered Thy people at all." Ex. v. 22. 23. Moses is in too 
great a hurry. He seems to forget that they are to be delivered by execu- 
tive judgments on Pharaoh. God's instruments are double-edged. Their 
angels of mercy will be Pharaoh's messenger of death. 

God's answer to Moses is very clear and emphatic, " Now shalt thou see 
what I will do to Pharaoh ; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, 
and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. I (am) the 
Lord (Ye-ho-wah), and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto 
Jacob, by (the name of) God Almighty (*T^'?N3) but by my name Jeho- 
vah (mn*) I was not known." The name Jehovah was heard even as 
early as the days of Eve; but that name is made known in terrible judg- 
ments. In that sense it is here used. Pharaoh did not then know Jeho- 
vah, since his judgments were then future, but the plagues made that name 
known to Pharaoh ; also to the Hebrews. This interpretation solves a 
difficult problem, "And I have also established my covenant with them, to 
give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they 
were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of 



HEBREW PHASE. 389 

Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my 
covenant. Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I (am) the Lord, and 
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and T will 
rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out 
arm and with a real judgment, and will take you to me for a people, and I 
will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I (am) the Lord your God, 
which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I 
will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give 
it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a herit- 
age. I (am) the Lord." This message the Hebrews did not receive on ac- 
count of their cruel bondage. God commands Moses and Aaron to say to 
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, that he let the children go out of his land; not 
simply for three days to sacrifice in the wilderness, but to leave his coun- 
try. This was giving the command in its most offensive form. God is re- 
solved to deliver His people. A charge is now given to Moses and Aaron to 
bring the Hebrew out of Egypt. Moses says, "I (am) of uncircumcised lips, 
and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me ?" And the Lord said unto Moses, 
" See, I have made thee a god unto Pharaoh ; and Aaron, thy brother, shall 
be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee ; and Aaron, 
thy brother, shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel 
out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my 
signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not 
hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth 
mine armies (and), my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of 
Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know (by these judg- 
ments. — W.) that I (am) the Lord (Jehovah) when I stretch forth my hand 
upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." 
Moses is now 80 years old, and Aaron 83 years. 

(1) God said, when Pharaoh demands a miracle. Throw down thy rod 
and it shall become a serpent. This miracle was imitated by Pharaoh's 
magicians. This hardened Pharaoh's heart. 

(2) By the rod of Moses the waters became blood. This second miracle 
is imitated by Egyptian enchantments. 

(3) By the command of Jehovah Moses stretched forth his hand 
with his rod over the rivers and ponds of water, and the frogs came 
up and covered the land of Egypt. This was also imitated by magical en- 
chantments. Pharaoh now asks Moses to remove the frogs, since these 
plagues began to be rather serious throughout Egypt, for though these 
three miracles had been imitated, the imitations were on so small a scale as 
to leave Pharaoh in doubt as to whether Moses' Jehovah was not more 
powerful than all the Egyptian deities. So soon as the frogs were removed 
Pharaoh forgot his promise. 

(5) Swarms of flies filled Egypt, while Goshen had none. Pharaoh 
commanded Moses to go and sacrifice, but not to go far off. Moses entreated, 
and the flies were removed. Pharaoh again refused to allow the people to 
go. The flies were the fifth miracle. The fourth (4) miracle was that of 
lice, which the magicians said. This is the finger of God, as they had no 
imitation. 



390 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

(6) God sent in the sixth plague murrain upon all the cattle of Egypt, 
the cattle in Goshen escaping. Still Pharaoh hardened his heart, and re- 
fused to give up Israel. God still is executing His judgments. 

(7) At the command of Jehovah Moses pointed his rod towards the 
heavens, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along 
upon the ground ; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So 
there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there 
was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the 
hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that (was) in the field, both 
man and beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and break every 
tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel 
(were) was there no hail. This terrible hail-storm was a great terror to 
Pharaoh, who commanded the children of Israel to remain no longer. Still 
when, by the entreaty of Moses, the storm was removed, Pharaoh refused to 
let the children of Israel depart. His heart was again hardened. God 
had hardened Pharaoh's heart that He might execute upon him all His 
executive judgments. 

(8) Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord 
brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all (that) night, and 
(when) it was morning the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts 
went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt, 
very grie.vous (were they) ; before them there were no such locusts as they, 
neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole 
earth, so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb of the 
land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left ; and there re- 
mained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field through 
all the land of Egypt." 

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, " I have sinned against 
the Lord your God and you ; forgive me only this once. Entreat the Lord 
to take away this death." By a strong wind Jehovah removed the locusts. 
Pharaoh's heart was hardened, as the vials of Jehovah's wrath were not all 
poured out. 

(9) By Jehovah's command Moses stretches out his rod towards heaven, 
and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days ; and 
they saw not one another, neither any rose from his place for three days; 
but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Pharaoh, calling 
Moses, said, Go ye, serve the Lord ; only let your flocks and your herds be 
stayed ; let your little ones go also with you. Moses said, Thou must give 
us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord 
our God. Our cattle, also, shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left 
behind, for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know 
not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. Pharaoh's 
heart being hardened, answered Moses, Get thee from me, take heed to thy- 
self, see my face no more ; for in (that) day thou seest my face thou shalt 
die. And Moses said. Thou hast spoken well. I will see thy face again no 
more." Ex. x. 25-29. How feeble and helpless are earth's proudest mon- 
archs when contending with the Almighty ! Moses, as a private man, was 



HEBREW PHASE. 391 

but a worm of the dust. Officially, he was to Pharaoh the visible Jehovah. 
What power had Pharaoh to kill Moses when acting as Jehovah's vice 
gerent ? Pharaoh has now but a few days to live. The waters of the sea 
are being made ready to ingulf him and his hosts. Pharaoh seems to be 
insensible of the nature of his enemy. God is resolved to deliver His 
first-born from Egyptian bondage. No power in the universe can suc- 
cessfully resist His will, sustained by His oath. 

(10) "And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague (more) 
upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt ; afterwards he will let you go hence ; when 
he shall let (you) go he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak 
now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow (ask, demand 
'7J<tJ^) of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver 
and jewels of gold. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the 
Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses (was) very great in the land of 
Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. 
And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight I will go out into 
the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die. 

From the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even 
unto the first born of the maid servant that (is) behind the mill; and 
all the first born of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout 
all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like 
it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog 
move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that 
the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And 
all these, thy servants, shall come down unto me, and bow down them- 
selves unto me saying. Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee; 
and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great 
anger. Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be 
multiplied in the land of Egypt. 

Before entering upon a narration of the execution of the last plague 
it will be well to give an illustration of the meaning of the word, that is 
translated, " borrowed " and " borrow," in Ex. iii. 22 ; xi. 2 ; xii. 35. In- 
fidels have made a handle of this; that the Hebrews borrowed without 
intending to pay, '7K£i^ — sha-al. He asked, requested, demanded. Ex. 

iii. 22, Jos. xix. 50, Eze. vii. 21, and also in Ex. xi. 2, xii. 35. The quota- 
tion from the Talmud (translated) is as follows : "An Egyptian prince 
came to Alexander the Great and said. Our nation have heard that you 
are so very benevolent as to pay all the just debts of your subjects. I 
came, therefore, to inquire if this is the fact. The king answered in the 
affirmative, and inquired of the prince the nature of his demand. He 
replied. The Jews, who are under your jurisdiction, have, several 
hundred years ago, borrowed jewels of silver and of gold from our 
people, and have never returned them ; and I have now come to de- 
mand both principal and interest. Alexander wished to know what evi- 
dence he could adduce in favor of his claim. He replied. The Bible. 
This is excellent evidence said the king, — will you be so good as to allow 



392 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

me three days to examine into the nature of your claim ? To which 
the prince readily consented, and referred him, as an evidence of it, to 
Exod. iii. 22. The king consulted with his secretary, Gaviah ben Pasea, 
who was a very learned Jew, and who, on the morning of the third day, 
called on Alexander, and told him, first, to get the prince when he came, 
to consent, that if a balance were due on either side, it should be paid 
with interest ; second, that the Bible should be evidence for and against 
both parties; third, inquire of him if their law did not allow servants 
and slaves a just and equitable compensation for their services, — all of 
which he will readily admit. 1. Then refer him to Gen. xlvi. 6, where 
Jacob and his posterity took their cattle and all their wealth with them 
into Egypt. 2. The Israelites were three or four hundred years in bondage 
in his nation. 3. When they left Egypt, they could not as slaves, take 
their property with them. Now, then, estimate the value of the property 
that Jacob took into Egypt, and the interest ; and also the services of 
all the Jewish nation for four hundred years, at so much a day for each 
one ; then add the interest, and double both principal and interest, for the 
Egyptians made them do double labor, and they had also to find their own 
materials to make brick. Let him, from this immense sum, deduct the 
small amount of jewels of silver and gold, and there will be such a large bal- 
ance in our favor that their whole nation can not pay ; besides he does not 
understand our language ; for '7N£J^ — (sha-al) means to ask, demand, as a 

debt, or an equivalent, and not to borrow. For a confirmation of this see 
Gen. xxxii. 17, Exod. xiii. 14, Num. xxvii. 1, Jos. xix. 50, 1 Sam. i. 20, 
Ez. vii. 2, Ps. xxvii. 4. The king was delighted with this critical view- of 
the case, and accordingly adopted the course pointed out by his able 
counsel. When the prince came, and Alexander explained the whole his- 
tory of the case to him, and proved beyond doubt that his nation was 
largely in debt to the Israelites, the prince fled into a foreign country." 

After the passover was instituted, and all the preparations made for 
the departure of the Hebrews from the land of Egypt, God makes ready 
to inflict the last plague upon Pharaoh and his empire. "And it came 
to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land 
of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat upon his throne, unto 
the first-born of the captive that (was) in the dungeon ; and all the first- 
born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and his servants, 
and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt ; for (there 
was) not a house where (there was) not one dead. And he (Pharaoh — W.) 
called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up (and) get you forth 
from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel ; and go, serve 
the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds as ye 
have said, and begone ; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were 
urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land 
in haste ; for they said. We (be) all dead (men). And the people took 
their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound 
up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did 
according to the word of Moses ; and they borrowed (demanded — W.) of 



HEBREW PHASE. 393 

the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the 
Lord gave the people favor in sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent 
(gave) unto them (such things as they required), and they spoiled the 
Egyptians. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Suc- 
coth, about six hundred thousand on foot (that were) men, besides chil- 
dren. And a mixed multitude went up also with them ; and flocks ^nd 
herds, (even) very much cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes of 
the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, 
because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had 
they prepared for themselves any victual. Now the sojourning of the chil- 
dren of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, (was four hundred and thirty years. 
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even 
the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out 
from the land of Egypt." 

We have now followed the children of Israel from the day that Jacob 
and his family arrived in Egypt till the moment when that people, under 
the visible command of Moses and Aaron, began their journey towards the 
great wilderness beyond the Red Sea. Let us pause for a moment at some 
of the most noted events of their sojourn in the land of the Pharaohs : (1) 
Why they went there ; (2) their settlement in Goshen ; (3) the period of 
their increase and prosperity; (4) their oppression; (5) God's special care 
and agency; (6) Moses their deliverer; (7) God's judgments; (8) Pass- 
over reflections. 

. (1) God sent Joseph, in advance, into Egypt to provide a place for 
them during a seven years' famine, which, for wise purposes, he was bring- 
ing upon the land of Canaan especially ; also to retire the family of promise 
into a fertile land where they might rapidly increase, like fishes, into a na- 
tion. In the time which transpired from the first dream of Joseph till 
Jacob and his family were settled in Goshen, there was a continued series 
of the most remarkable events, which demonstrated the direct and minute 
agency of the Almighty as the special Father of that people. All the 
events follow in what we call a natural way, and seem to transpire under 
the direct control of human agency ; and yet the Divine power instigates 
and directs every movement. The whole chain of events turn out accord- 
ing to a plan previously arranged in the governing mind. The dreams of 
Joseph and of Pharaoh are simply openings in the clouds, which shut out 
the workings of the Divine machinery from the view of the masses. Those 
only in high favor with God are admitted, at times, to step through the 
clouds into the presence of the Deity, and be shown parts of His plan in 
advance. Of these we may reckon Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, 
the greater and lesser prophets, and St. John. Nothing but purity and 
holiness will remove the curtain, soon, however, to close the views against 
the best of mortals, since the scenes are too great for mortal endurance. 

(2) Their settlement in the garden of Egypt, the land of Goshen, had 
in it a definite purpose ; not simply to be fed during the remaining five 
years of famine, they could have been supplied while occupying sterile 
lands; but it gave them a home nearest to the land of Canaan, a land 



394 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

where they might follow their occupations without giving offense to the 
Egyptians ; and more particularly to enable them to multiply with great 
rapidity. Goshen was the hot-bed of the Hebrews. After their settlement 
in the land of Goshen they were kindly remembered by the Pharaohs, 
through the greatness of Joseph, and allowed to increase and spread through- 
out the Delta. They were occupied as farmers, tradesmen and domestics 
through the whole valley of the Egyptian Nile. Their females were ex- 
ceedingly prolific, often bearing children by triplets. They were robust, 
capable of sustaining any amount of labor. God had promised to make of 
them a great nation ; and as their sojourn in Egypt was limited it was 
necessary to adapt the means to the ends proposed. But this great in- 
crease and prosperity brought about another result foreseen, and, we 
might say, purposed. They, in time, became so numerous as to excite 
the jealousy of the Pharaohs. There had been shepherd kings who held 
the dominion of Egypt and who had changed their religion. May it not 
be so again? If they are allowed freedom they will drive us from the 
soil. Thus reasoned the new Pharaohs that knew not Joseph. Let us 
oppress them ; bind such tasks upon them as will put an end to their 
rapid increase ; scatter them among the Egyptians, so that combinations 
shall be prevented. 

God overrules their acts so as to cause their more rapid multiplica- 
tion and Egypt was crowded with Hebrew slaves. During this embryotic 
period the special care of Jehovah was in constant exercise. He has to 
bring about the accomplishment of His own purposes, however, by vio- 
lently defeating human agency. In ail the Divine Providences, from the 
first dream of Joseph to the time of the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red 
Sea, there was a continued thwarting of human purposes, all with a view 
to carry out His own fixed plan relative to the Hebrews. The first dream 
of Joseph was the visible beginning of that series of purposes towards that 
people which have continued through every epoch of their eventful his- 
tory to the present time. Joseph's dreams excited the bitter envy of his 
brethren, which culminated in his sale to a company which disposed of 
him in Egypt. He was introduced to Pharaoh by another series of 
dreams. His interpretation of those dreams (a power direct from God) 
pointed him out as the only suitable governor of Egypt during the seven 
years of plenty and of famine. This Divine Providence brought Jacob 
and his family into Egypt. Here God prospers them as before predicted. 
The cup of the Amorites is now full; they have become a great nation 
as promised. They are to return with all their substance to Canaan, 
the land of promise. Yet the Hebrews are prosperous and contented, 
and to Egypt's prosperity they have become a necessary fixture. Two 
great changes must be brought about in what is called a natural way : 
(a) they must be made willing to leave their comfortable homes in the 
land of Goshen ; (b) Pharaoh must be made willing to surrender a na- 
tion of faithful and profitable slaves. To bring about these changes ex- 
traordinary means must be used; acts of violence must be used. The 
Egyptians are allowed to carry out the promptings of their fears and 



HEBREW PHASE. 395 

cupidity by reducing the Hebrews to a severe bondage, under whose lash 
they cry for the liberty of their own native hills; and for which selfish 
oppression the Egyptians are to suffer a series of executive judgments 
till Pharaoh will willingly thrust them out of his country. The bond- 
age fills the cup of Egypt's iniquity ; the ten plagues are the emptying 
of the vials of Divine wrath. The instrument used by Pharaoh to fix 
the Hebrews to his soil is turned to the salvation of the slave and the 
destruction of his master. The sword of the Almighty, keen-edged and 
handled with supreme intelligence, cuts every way. God's purposes will 
have their execution. 

God's care and agency must have a visible agent ; a deliverer in hu- 
man form. Moses is born and protected ; brought up as the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter; and educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Through 
Moses, with his rod, (a symbol of Divine power) Jehovah purposes to 
execute His wonders and signs in the land of Ham. Moses having slain 
an Egyptian flees to the land of Midian, where he dwells for many years, 
and is then commissioned for his work of deliverance of God's " first 
born," "my son." " Israel (is) my first born — my son." "Children of the 
Lord your God." " I am a father to Israel." " When Israel (was) a child 
then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." " To whom (per- 
taineth) the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of 
the law, and the service, and the promises." 

"And was there (in Egypt — W.) till the death of Herod ; that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of 
Egypt have I called my son." Matt. ii. 15 and Hos. xi. 1. Here a prophecy 
that refers originally to Israel is applied to Jesus of Nazareth. Israel is his 
first born ; Jesus is his first born. Does this problem admit of any national 
solution ? How can Israel and Messiah be each God's first born ? The one 
is such by adoption ; the other by a miraculous generation. Christ is the 
seed to which the promise was originally made. Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob (Israel) are joint heirs, included in the deed of purchase by the blood 
of the chief heir. Israel then, by joint heirship, is as truly the son as the 
chief heir; the one made such by adoption; the other by generation. God 
called His adopted son out of Egypt; as also His natural son. Is it reason- 
able that God should utterly, and beyond redemption, cast off His adopted 
son? Does chastisement destroy heirship ? Not unless that punishment is 
specifically declared to be the disinheriting. God has seen fit to make the 
Hebrew family the hub of the national wheel. When Messiah takes the man- 
agement of that wheel under the new order of ages, Israel shall again con- 
stitute its hub, as it revolves, during endless ages, on the axle of Jeho- 
vah's immutable purpose. One other point claims our attention, the insti- 
tution of the passover. Pharaoh attempted to hold in a crushing servitude 
God's first born, for which Jehovah slew all Egypt's first born. That His 
first born might escape the hand of the executive angel, they were re- 
quired to mark the two side-posts and the upper door-posts of their houses 
with the blood of an unblemished lamb. This institution was typical, and 
was to be observed till Messiah, the true passover, should be slain. 



896 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The blood of the Lamb of God shall protect God's chosen when God's 
Divine wrath shall be executed on His enemies, when Messiah takes to 
Himself His great power. 

(2) The Wilderness Epoch. The children of Israel were in full 
march on their journey out of the house of bondage. From the direction 
of their line of march Pharaoh concluded that they (were) entangled in 
the land and that the wilderness had shut them in. "And the heart of 
Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they 
said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving 
us? And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. 
And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, 
and captains over everyone of them ; and the Lord hardened the heart 
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel ; 
and the children of Israel went out with a high hand. And the Egyptians 
pursued after them, all the horses, (and) chariots of Pharaoh and his 
horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea. 
The Hebrews had a visible symbol of the Divine presence, a cloud by 
day and a pillar of fire by night. And when Pharaoh drew nigh the 
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold the Egyptians marched 
after them ; and they were sore afraid ; and the children of Israel cried 
to the Lord." How strong are the chains of habit; notwithstanding the 
testimony they had been permitted to have of God's presence and pro- 
tection, the sight of their former masters waked up their fears, and they 
began to cry for help. "And they said unto Moses, Because (there were) 
no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? 
Wherefore hast thou dealt with us to carry us forth out of Egypt ? (Is) 
not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying. Let us alone, 
that we may serve the Egyptians ? For (it had been) better for us to 
serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness. And Moses 
said unto the people. Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of 
the Lord, which he will show to you to-day ; for the Egyptians whom ye 
have seen to-day ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall 
fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, Wherefore criest unto me ? Speak unto the children of Israel 
that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy 
hand over the sea, and divide it ; and the children of Israel shall go on dry 
(ground) through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will harden the 
hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them; and I will get me 
honor on Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his 
horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I (am) the Lord, when I 
have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his 
horsemen. And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, 
removed, and went behind them ; and 'the pillar of cloud went from before 
their face, and stood behind them ; and it came between the camp of the 
Egyptians and the camp of Israel ; and it was a cloud and darkness (to 
them) ; but it gave light by night to the Hebrews ; so that the one came 
not near the other all the night. And M oses st retched out his hand over 



HEBREW PHASE. 397 

the sea ; and the Lord caused the sea to go (back) by a strong east wind 
all night, and made the sea dry (land) and the waters were divided. 
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry 
(ground) ; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand 
and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued them, and went in after 
them to the midst of the sea, (even) all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and 
his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord 
looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire, and of 
the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their 
chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, 
Let us flee from the face of Israel ; for the Lord fighteth for them against 
the Egyptians." It is now too late to escape the Deity's anger. They are 
in the snare ready for the last vial of Divine wrath. At the command of 
Jehovah the rod of Moses was again extended over the sea behind them, 
and the rushing water again filled the channel, and the Egyptians sank be- 
neath the floods, and not one of the hosts of Pharaoh returned to carry the 
sad intelligence. But the children of Israel walked upon dry (land) in the 
midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on the right 
hand, and on the left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the 
hand of the Egyptians ; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea- 
shore. Seeing this terrible overthrow, the people feared and believed the 
Lord, and Moses, His servant, such a stupendous miracle, was required to 
bring to birth the Hebrew nation ; a commonwealth born from the waves 
of a turbulent sea, a symbol of its future life. 

Then followed the song of Moses and of the people of Israel ; a song, 
which, for its composition, the occasion, and the multitude of the choir, 
had never been surpassed but once, " when the morning stars sang to- 
gether and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job xxxviii. 7. It is a 
song both to and of the Lord. The triumph is full and glorious ; a triumph 
of the seed of the woman over the seed of the serpent. The song is unsel- 
fish in all its elements. Moses and the children of Israel hide themselves 
behind the throne of God and make music for their deliverer. " Who like 
unto thee, Lord, among the gods ? Who like thee, glorious in holiness, 
fearful (in) praises, doing wonders? Thou stretcheth out Thy right hand 
the earth (waters — W.) swallowed them. Thou in Thy mercy hast led 
forth Thy people (which) Thou hast redeemed ; Thou has guided them in 
Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation," The song becomes prophetic. 
" The people (heathen — W.) shall hear (and) be afraid. Sorrow shall take 
hold on the inhabitants of Palestine ; the Dukes of Edom shall be amazed, 
the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them ; all the 
inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon 
them ; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be still as a stone; till thy 
people pass over, Lord, till the people pass over, (which) Thou hast pur- 
chased. Thou shalt bring them into the mountain of thine inheritance 
(in) the place, O Lord, (which) Thou hast made for thee to dwell in ; in the 
sanctuary, O Lord, (which) Thy hands have established." Neither Moses 
nor Aaron is named. What a contrast between the language of this song 



398 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and that used by earth's mighty conquerors, Is not this great Babylon 
that I have made by the might of my power? Moses exalts the Deity. 
Human monarchs glorify and exalt themselves. 

The wilderness epoch of the Hebrews : The Red Sea is now behind 
them; the watery grave of Pharaoh and his host. In exultation they 
hold a musical festival. (1) A song of Moses and the people answered by 
Miriam the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, with all the women, 
having timbrels. (2) This having been concluded, they now have time 
for more serious contemplations. While Pharaoh was in pursuit, that 
danger absorbed every thought, but the sea closing over him they began to 
look forward to the trials of their journey. Standing upon the eastern 
shore of the sea, which had been divided for their safe passage, are a 
mixed multitude of slaves just liberated from those taskmasters that now 
sleep under the waves. Men, women and children, a nation without any 
material or mental wealth, without food or clothing for the coming future, 
a wilderness before them, through which they are obliged to pass to the 
land of promise. Serpents and savages, numerous and deadly. In Egypt 
they had been accustomed to company, and continued excitement of toil. 
Now they enter an unknown wilderness, waste and howling, not knowing 
their fate. Moses is their visible leader; God their guide. A cloud by day, 
and a pillar of fire by night. They are without laws or religion, a helpless, 
needy family, called away from slavery to a life of hardship. Three days 
they went in the wilderness and found no water. The first water was too 
bitter for drink. And the people murmured against Moses, saying : What 
shall we drink? The waters were made sweet by casting a certain tree 
into them which the Lord pointed out to Moses. How provident is their 
invisible Guide. They in Egypt, had been released from the cares of pro- 
viding food and raiment. A new life is struggling for birth; one so unlike 
that in the past they sigh for its return, with its servitude. A wilderness 
must be traversed before they are allowed to enter the land deeded to their 
fathers, through the special seed. That people is under God's special pro- 
tection since the Messiah, yet to come, is in its bosom. What a remark- 
able history now begins to open its inspired pages. Let the reader take 
interest, as he follows their encampment through the wilderness. Never 
allow the cloud, the symbol of divine presence to sink out of view, or the 
marching hosts to cease to be objects of attraction. How can the howling 
desert be lonely while blessed with such exalted company? They press 
on towards the goodly land without any knowledge of their approaching 
history, only that trials await them. With Moses, their guide, they pre- 
pare to move forward, not knowing whither. 

According to the divine Injunction, the children of Israel moved to- 
wards the South along the Red Sea, and finally encamped near the sea. 
Here at the foot of Sinai they are to organize as a nation of priests and 
and receive the law. 

Let us read the narrative of this sojourn as given by Moses, their leader 
and Law-giver. 

This vast assembly was an emigrant family, and possessed within itself 



HEBREW PHASE, 399 

the elements of a great army. Their commissary department was peculiar, 
its supplies being furnished direct from the heavens. 

Having arrived at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the cloud indicates that they 
are now to halt for a season. Wonderful events are here to transpire. 
Moses is called up into the mountain to meet Jehovah, from whom a code 
of laws is to be given, to guide them in the future, as a nation of priests. 
These laws were to furnish all nations with the rudiments of civil and 
religious thought, and by this divine code the Hebrews were to be made 
the instructors of all nationalities, to the most distant generations. 

A family just out of severe servitude had every national idea to learn. 
In Egypt their daily tasks occupied their thoughts fully, since food and 
raiment were necessarily provided for them by their task-masters. Now 
they are to be moulded into a nation with new thoughts, both civil and 
religious. Both classes of thoughts were new to the Hebrews, and equally 
foreign to the Egyptian mind. Whence came they ? They could have no 
other than a divine origin. No one can become familiar with the elements 
of this law as recorded in Exodus and Leviticus, without being irresistibly 
forced to admit their Superior origin, that they came out of the clouds of 
Sinai, and were the utterings of its trumpet thunders. These laws seemed 
for a time, above their capacity as a people. To say, then, that Moses 
originated these Laws, is absurd, since they were unlike to those with 
which he was made familiar in Egypt. The laws written upon those stone 
tablets were still above his abilities to compose, and he could not have 
copied them from any human record. It is true that Moses was called a 
law-giver, but only in the sense of an agent of Jehovah, to the people under 
divine guidance. These laws were designed to subserve both the civil and 
ecclesiastical policy; not simply during their wilderness sojourn, but during 
their national existence in Palestine. 

It could be'no matter of surprise that these quasi slaves did not render 
strict obedience to a code of laws so far superior to those under which they 
had performed their onerous servitude. 

In the wilderness the Hebrew nation spent its infancy. Their 39 years 
training, from the giving of the law till they crossed the Jordan, was the 
most remarkable ever experienced by any other people. The laws regu- 
lating the tabernacle worship, were carried out by an established priesthood 
of which Aaron, the brother of Moses, was constituted the head, and a 
civil code, under the visible control of Moses, who obtained his instructions 
directly from God. 

The conduct of the Hebrews under their wilderness tuition had many 
very noted features. The manner in which the report of the spies was 
received, exhibited a want of confidence in the power of Jehovah, and 
their complaint relative to food and drink, was a specimen of the dispo- 
sition of a people, depraved in their habits and fond of good living. 

The wilderness period continued about forty years, yet full of a rich 
and varied experience. Our limited space will not allow us to protract our 
remarks. God's care, during this, their infancy, finds no parallel in the 
history of any other division of the human family. It is replete with us^ 



400 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ful and interesting lessons; such as will enable us to comprehend the divine 
character, and fully satisfy us, that He will accomplish towards the Hebrew 
race all His promises. A nation so dear to Him in its infancy, bearing in 
its bosom the true seed, His Son Messiah, will be equally precious as the 
central family under Messiah's reign. This period leaves the Hebrews at 
the fords of Jordan. Let us hasten. 

III. The Hebrew Theocratic Epoch, extending through the periods of 
Joshua and the Judges. This may be denominated as the period of sub- 
jugation, preparatory to their somewhat peaceful occupation under Solomon. 

The history of Joshua is full of interest, since he is called to subdue 
the Canaanites in the land of Israel, preparatory to Hebrew occupation, as 
the Messiah will subjugate all nations during His official reign, preparatory 
to the endless joint reign of the Father and the Son. The personal presence 
and visible literal work of the first Joshua, sufficiently indicates the charac- 
ter of Messiah's work. Joshua marched at the head of visible armies. 
The nations will not surrender to any but a visible ruler. The gathering 
out of a people from the Gentiles, by the Spirit, as has been going on since 
the day of Pentecost, bears no analogy to Joshua's invasion and subjugation 
of the land of Canaan. This thought is worthy of special attention, since 
it shows that Christ's work will be visible and literal. 

Joshua crosses the Jordan and enters upon his work of subjugation 
and occupation. The nations had been amply warned of his coming; yet 
they were resolved to contest with him the right of possession. It must be 
conceded that He that created and fashioned the whole earth, and created 
all living beings to dwell on it, had a right to dispose of the whole; conse- 
quently of all or any of its parts as He might think proper, and, as in His 
divisions of the earth after the flood. He had allotted the land now occupied 
by the Canaanites, to the Hebrews, and since, as usurpers, they had vio- 
lently held that land, God's heritage, till their cups were all full. Why 
should not God, its original Creator and Owner, have a perfect right to dis- 
possess them for the purpose of placing that family in possession, to whom 
He had, with a solemn oath given a deed of warranty. Paul sums up the 
matter in these words: " The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, 
and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, 
and with a high arm brought He them out of it. And about the time of 
forty years suffered He their manners in the wilderness. And when he 
(by Joshua — W.) had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he 
divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave (unto them) 
judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the 
prophet." Acts xiii. 19. 20. (See Acts vii. 45. 16). 

The seven nations are named in Deut. vii. 1. 6. "When the Lord thy 
God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and 
hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and the Girgashites, 
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, 
and the Jebu sites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when 
the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, 
(and) utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor 



HEBREW PHASE. 401 

show mercy unto them ; neither shalt thou make marriages with them ; 
thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou 
take to thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that 
they may serve other gods : so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against 
you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall 
destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves 
and burn their graven images with fire. For thou (art) a holy people unto 
the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people 
unto Himself, above all people that (are) upon the face of the earth." (See 
Josh. xiv. 1-6.) How can the thought be entertained, in the face of such 
declarations, relative to the Hebrew family, that their banishment from 
their land is final and endless? That the ten tribes are for ever lost; and 
that Judah will never be erected into a nation on the mountain of Israel ! 
Has God's original plan relative to Israel been a failure ? Such a result is 
contrary to God's Word and conflicting with His revealed attributes. Just 
out of the Wilderness they are illy prepared for self-government. God 
therefore continued to act as their invisible Chief, and, during four hundred 
and fifty years, gave them judges, who should administer the government 
among the people. 

During this protracted period of four and a half centuries their disci- 
pline was severe. Instead of exterminating the Canaanites as they had 
been commanded, they made alliances with them, intermarried, and were 
led into the most degrading idolatry. Some years they had tabernacle 
service ; again the Ark is taken from them, and they are for years without 
any God-appointed worship. 

Such continued to be the state of affairs till near the close of Samuel's 
administration, when, owing to the corrupt habits of his sons, the people 
brought the Theocracy to a close by demanding a king. The Theocratic 
Epoch had many remarkable features. 

(1) Their subjugation of the Canaanites was so imperfect, that they 
were as thorns to them ; often becoming their masters, ruling them with 
great severity. The native tribes led them into idolatry, the most hateful 
sin against Jehovah. 

(2) Civil wars continued through this entire period, and became ex- 
ceedingly bloody and wasting. 

(3) During this period there is no intimation however from God, that 
He intends to change His covenant, or that He had any intention of dis- 
inheriting them. The Hebrews were still His children, though disobedient 
and exceedingly wayward. The Hebrew family still carries in its womb 
the future seed, Messiah, the Son of God. The original promise of Jehovah 
including a land and a seed, will not allow us for a moment to regard any 
temporary punishment as abrogating God's oath, or changing Jehovah's 
original plan of nationalities. 

(4) Fourth Epoch, Hebrew twelve-tribed Monarchy. The theocracy 
ceased with Samuel when the people demanded a king to go in and out 
before them visibly, and fight their battles, as with other nations. Samuel 

26 



402 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

told the people what their kings would do ; that they would make servants 
of their sons and daughters, tax them severely, and carry out a very expen- 
sive establishment. Still they insist that Samuel should appoint them a 
king. Since God, to this time, had been their king, this request was truly 
His deposition, as He informed the prophet. God, in His wrath, gave 
them Saul. 

In consequence of certain conduct, very offensive to Jehovah, Saul is 
deposed from his kingdom ; a clear proof that God had not deserted His 
people. Saul violated the sanctity of the priestly office by offering sacri- 
fice. Samuel said to Saul, " Thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept 
the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee : for 
now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 
But now thy kingdom shall not continue : the Lord hath sought Him a 
man after His own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him (to be) cap- 
tain over His people." 1 Sam. xiii. 13. 14. David was anointed king over 
Israel in Saul's stead. A deadly jealousy against David took possession of 
Saul, and he took every opportunity to slay him, though his son-in-law. 
By the friendship of Jonathan, Saul's son, David's life was spared. 

Saul's disobedience in case of the Amalekites developed God's purpose 
towards Saul. His taking hold of Samuel's skirt, by which it was rent, 
was turned by the prophet, " The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel 
this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, better than thou." 
1 Sam. XV. 28. Vs. 135. "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the 
day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul; and the Lord 
repented that He had made Saul king over Israel." 

"And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, 
seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thy horn with 
oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite : for I have provided 
me a king among his sons." 1 Sam. xvi-1. Jesse caused seven sons to 
pass before Samuel. Neither of these was to be the Lord's anointed. The 
shepherd boy alone remained. David, ruddy and of beautiful countenance, 
approached Samuel, who by inspiration, arose and anointed him king over 
the twelve-tribed Israel. Here properly ends Saul's reign, though he still 
continued to occupy the throne, One thing is worthy of special note, 
though Israel had rejected God as their king, God has not forsaken Israel. 
He still continues the supreme power behind their visible throne; deposes 
their king, and filled it with one of His own choice. The Hebrew is still 
God's own chosen family, over which He exercises the authority of a Father 
and Supreme Governor. 

In closing our account of Saul we shall simply state : (a) the Hebrew 
monarchs were subordinate, visible rulers, under the Supreme Jehovah, 
held in power or deposed at His will; (6) obedience is better than sacrifice; 
(c) God evidently had a far-reaching purpose in every change of Hebrew 
government ; (d) Jehovah sees the human heart and selects in righteous- 
ness ; (e) David, in human estimation, was the least promising for the posi- 
tion of all the sons of Jesse; (/) up to this point in the history of the 
Hebrew family, divine Providence is very distinctly seen. The one seed is 



HEBREW PHASE. 403 

in this family ; so, also, is the multitudinous seed, viz. in the sub-family of 
Joseph, containing Ephraim and Manasseh ; (g) we have now reached the 
house of David, which is promised an endless perpetuity; (A) we shall not 
allow the reader to loose sight of God's original plan of peopling the earth 
after the flood, of the central position of the Hebrew family, and of the 
infinite pains which the Almighty took in rendering Israel worthy of being 
a sound, and suitable hub of the great national wheel, to be constructed by 
and governed under the supreme control of His Son, the Messiah. 

We have read the original promise to the royal seed Christ, then to 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc., joint neirs, followed Joseph and Jacob 
into Egypt, watched over this their embryotic period, brought them out of 
Egypt by the power of ten national judgments, instructed, maintained, 
and guided them through the waste howling wilderness, drove out seven 
Canaanite nations and divided it by lot among His Hebrew families, ruled 
and judged them 450 years, and has been their invisible Ruler during the 
reign of Saul, and has now appointed David to be their king, whose house 
is to have perpetual succession. Thus has God been their Father and 
Governor, from the day that Jacob entered Egypt, to the anointing of 
David to be king over all Israel, B.'C. 1706 to B. C. 1063, 643 years. And 
if God's plan required that He should be the Father and Governor of that 
people 643 years, why should He ever desert the Hebrews ? 

The reign of David, God's anointed, carries the Hebrew history for- 
ward about forty years. It is clearly demonstrated during that period, 
that David's occupancy of the throne of the Hebrews is precarious and 
defective — temporary. He succeeds well in his foreign conquests; yet his 
domestic troubles are numerous and weighty. The rebellion of his son 
Absolom was to him a matter of great affliction. Absolom's conspiracy 
well nigh lost David his crown. His lamentation over his son's death, 
though natural and exceedingly pathetic, evinces the weakness of parental 
justice. 

David's acts were overruled for the glory of God. His passions often 
led him into great errors of conduct. Still his faults brought chastisement, 
but he was not disinherited. This fact should teach us a lesson relative to 
Israel's future. Under the reign of David the Hebrew nation took a high 
stand among earth's nationalities, for the purity and elevation of its re- 
ligious system and worship, also for the superiority of its civil code. 

David began his reign in Hebron, where he reigned over Judah seven 
years and six months. Then came all the tribes of Israel (10 tribes) to 
David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, " Behold, we (are) thy bone and thy 
flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that 
leddest out and broughtest in Israel (10 tribes) : and the Lord said to thee. 
Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 
So all the elders of Israel (10 tribes) came to the king to Hebron ; and 
King David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they 
anointed David king over Israel (10 tribes). David (was) thirty years old 
when he began to reign, (and) he reigned forty years. In Jerusalem he 
reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah." 2 Sam. v. 1-6, 



404 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

It seems that there must have been, even as far back as in the wilder- 
ness, a jealousy existing between Judah and Israel. The original prophetic 
enunciations relative to the future of Judah, Ephraim and Manasseh, 
might have originated this feeling of jealousy. Judah led their encamp- 
ments through the wilderness. During their instructions and discipline, 
there existed a union of the two confederacies, Judah and Israel, or the 
ten tribes. Of the ten tribes Ephraim was the head; after that tribe stood 
Manasseh. Their religious and civil education was national; still they 
had a tribal drill that fostered jealousy and division, ready to break out 
when occasion might offer. Under David and Solomon the central govern- 
ment was too powerful to allow any division, but when these powerful 
monarchs, types of Messiah, had finished their lengthy and prosperous 
reigns, their successor Rehoboam had not power sufficient to hold under 
one central government these northern and southern confederacies. 

David's reign was necessarily too bloody to allow him to erect that 
temple whose materials he had, been collecting. This work was left to be 
completed by his son and successor, Solomon, a remarkable type of Messiah, 
prince of peace. No one can read the life of David without being made 
sensible that he is tracing the footsteps of an extraordinary person, made 
such by his natural passions, overruled at times by Jehovah; When 
anointed king, David was simply Jesse's shepherd boy, without any special 
development presaging his future. The anointing oil marked the com- 
mencement of David's greatness. Before oil touched his person he was 
Jesse's shepherd boy. By that act he is made God's anointed King of 
Israel. What a change ! From the sheep-cot to the throne of Israel, — the 
throne of God ! The change is accomplished by the spirit of the Almighty. 
As the anointing oil descended from the horn onto David's person, the 
spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward. 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 
When Jehovah takes hold of a man for any special purpose he is shaped 
for His work. As God's anointed David is carried beyond the infirmities 
of his own polluted nature. When that work is accomplished he sinks 
under his own infirmities. Here are two Davids in one liberal person : 
David of the flesh and David of the spirit ; both equally real and liberal ; 
the one is called fleshy, the other spiritual. The one is the child of na-tural 
generation, the other is the child of a spiritual generation. Jesse was the 
father of the one David, God's spirit the father of the royal David. Exist- 
ing in one personality they seem to conflict, both in nature and office. 
They are Paul's outer and inner man. What is true of one man may be 
equally true of any number or of a nation. David's life was full of ex- 
tremes, according as the one nature or the other bears rule. The govern- 
ment of David exhibits God as the Supreme Ruler, keeping charge of His 
family during this their early national training. They are evidently in 
process of training for a new and far more extended sphere. It is to that 
new position that we are to direct attention that we may discover the uni- 
formity of the divine purpose towards that people. 

It is not necessary to our purpose that we should examine all the acts 
of David, but only such as are designed to exhibit the plan of Jehovah rela- 



HEBREW PHASE. 405 

tive to the Hebrew nationality. After David began to reign in Hebron bis 
house grew in power, while that of Saul continued to decrease. God said, 
By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the 
hands of the Philistines, and out of the hands of their enemies. 2 Sam. iii. 
18. God went before David in his conquest of the Philistines, and thus 
established his position as sovereign of that people. Why should Jehovah 
fight Israel's battles if the Hebrews were not designed to subserve some 
great purpose in Messiah's kingdom ? It was so when the king sat quietly 
in his house, and Jehovah had given him rest from all his enemies 
Nathan, the prophet, was sent to him with the following instructions. 
"Shalt thou build Me (God — W.) a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt 
in (any) house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out 
of Eg3^pt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. 
In all (the places) wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel 
spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed 
my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not Me a house of cedar? I took 
thee (David — W.) from the sheep-cot, from following the sheep, to be ruler 
over my people, over Israel ; and I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, 
and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a 
great name, like unto the name of the great (men) that (are) in the earth. 
Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them 
that they may dwell in a place of their own and move them no more, 
neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before- 
time. And as since the time that I commanded judges (to be) over my 
people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the 
Lord telleth thee that He will make thee a house. And when thy days be 
fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after 
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his 
kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he com- 
mit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes 
of the children of men ; but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as 
I took (it) from Saul, whom I put away before thee. But thy house (family 
— W.) and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee ; thy throne 
shall be established forever. According to these words, and according to 
all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David." 2 Sam. vii. 5-17. The 
occasion of this revelation is found in 2. Sam. vii. 2. The king said unto 
Nathan, the prophet, "See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of 
God (the symbol of the divine presence) dwelleth within curtains." This 
divine chart of Hebrew history, from their abode in Egypt to the triumph- 
ant reign of Messiah, cannot be too closely followed in developing the He- 
brew phase, since it is a masterly outline of all their past and future. Any 
deviation from this outline must be incorrect. Of its past history, to the 
reign of David, we have been writing. Of the future history, from David's 
reign, we now write. That this divine prediction extends beyond the reign 
of Solomon will appear from the outline itself, which we shall now review. 
Vs. 12. David is here informed that he is to sleep (die — W.) with his 



40G THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

fathers, and that the events narrated are consequently to transpire after his 
death. David understood the vision to extend to very distant ages, for he 
says, " Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house (family. — W.) for a 
great while to come." Vs. 19. David's prayer, which follows Nathan's 
vision and prophecy, carries in it the same series of thoughts running 
through many generations. A part of that prayer we copy: "And what 
one nation in the earth (is) like Thy people (even), like Israel, whom God 
went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to 
do for you great things and terrible, for Thy land, before Thy people, which 
Thou redeemest to Thee from Egypt (from), the nations and their gods? 
For Thou hast confirmed to Thyself Thy people Israel (to be), a people 
unto Thee forever; and Thou, Jehovah, art become their God. And now, 

Lord, the word Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and concern- 
ing his house (family — W.), establish (it) forever, and do as Thou hast said. 
And let Thy name be magnified forever, saying. The Lord of hosts (is) the 
God over Israel ; and let the house of Thy servant David be established be- 
fore Thee. For Thou, Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to Thy 
servant, saying, I will build thee a house (family — W.), therefore hast Thy 
servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto Thee. And now, O 
Lord, Thou (art) that God, and Thy words be true, and Thou hast promised 
this goodness unto Thy servant; therefore now let it please Thee to bless 
the house of Thy servant, that it may continue forever before Thee ; for 
Thou, Lord, hast spoken (it); and with Thy blessing let the house (fam- 
ily — W.) of Thy servant be blessed forever." Vss. 23-29. 

David's expression, " Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house 
(family- — W.) for a great while to come," emphatically expresses David's 
understanding that the far future, the most distant epoch, of his family 
fell within the scope of the vision. Solomon was evidently not that "seed," 
since Solomon was made king and began to reign before David's death, as 
we learn from the follownig : David said to Bath-Sheba, "As the Lord 
liveth that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. Even as I swear 
unto thee, by the Lord God of Israel, saying. Assuredly Solomon thy son 
shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead, even so 
will I certainly do this day." And it was done that day, as we learn from 
the following : And King David said, "Call me Zadok, the priest, and 
Nathan, the. prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada." And they came 
before the king. The king said unto them, Take with you the servants of 
your Lord, and cause Solomon, my son, to ride upon mine own mule, and 
bring him down to Gihon ; and let Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, the 
prophet, anoint him their king over Israel; and blow ye with the trumpet 
and say, God save King Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, that 
he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead, and 

1 have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Beniah, 
the son of Jehoiada, answered the king, and said. Amen, the Lord God of 
my lord, the King, say so (too). As the Lord hath been with my lord, the 
King, even so be He with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the 
throne of my lord, King David. And Zadok, the priest, took a horn of oil 



HEBREW PHASE. 407 

out of the tabernacle and annointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpets ; 
and all the people said, God save King Solomon." This coronation was 
made with haste, because Adonijah usurped the kingdom. Solomon 
exercised his regal power while David was alive, as we learn from 1 Kin. 
1. 50-53. 

David's last words are far-reaching, evidently looking to a greater than 
Solomon as the Star and Rock of his family. " Now these be the last 
words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said, and the man raised up on 
high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel 
said. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word (was) in my 
tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me. He that 
ruleth over men (must be) just, ruling in the fear of God. And (he shall 
be) as the light of the morning, (when the sun riseth, (even) a morning 
without clouds; (as) the tender grass (springing) out of the earth by clear 
shining after rain. Although my house (family — W.) (be) not so with God ; 
yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all (things), 
and sure; for (this is) all my salvation, and all (my) desire, although He 
make (it) not to grow." 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-6. 

It is very evident that the house of David was not the Temple which 
Solomon built ; for the Temple was the house of God, where the ark, the 
symbol of God's presence, was to dwell. David thus explains the matter : 
" Here me, my brethren, and my people : (As for me) I (had) in my 
heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant (2 Sam. vii. 2. 
Ps. cxxxii. 2-7.) of the Lord, and for the foot-stool of our God, and had 
made ready for the building. But God said unto me. Thou shalt not build 
a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed 
much blood." " How be it the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the 
house (family — W.) of my father to be king over Israel forever ; for He 
hath chosen Judah (to be) the ruler ; and of the house (family — W.) of 
Judah, the house (family — W.) of my father (Jesse — W.) and among the 
sons of my father He liked me to make (me) king over all Israel. And of 
all my sons (for the Lord hath given me many sons) He hath chosen Solo- 
mon, my son (ch. xxii. 9-10), to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the 
Lord over Israel. And He said unto me, Solomon, thy son, he shall build 
my house and courts; for I have chosen him (to be) my son, and I will be 
His father. Morever, I will establish his kingdom forever if he be con- 
stant to do my commandments and my judgments as at this day. Now, 
therefore, in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the Lord, and in the 
audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord 
your God ; that ye may possess this good land, and leave (it) for an inherit- 
ance for your children after you forever. And thou, Solomon, my son, know 
thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a 
willing mind ; for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the 
imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek Him He will be found of thee ; 
but if thou forsake Him He will cast thee off forever." 1 Chro. xxvii. 2-10. 
It will be seen at once that the promise to Solomon is conditional, and as 
he violated the terms, his right to the throne of Israel ceased. Nathan's 



408 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

prediction, therefore, refers to another son, one giving perfect obedience. 
David then gave Solomon a pattern (ichnograph) of the building, with 
elevations, sections, and specifications of every part ; and all this he him- 
self received by inspiration from Grod himself (vss. 12-19) just as Moses 
had received the plan af the tabernacle. Solomon and his temple were, 
therefore, types; the one of the Messiah, the other of the universe. David's 
house is named twenty-five times, and in every passage, it signifies his 
family. David's house, or family, was to be perpetuated, and a future son 
was to establish his family forever. That this Son is the Messiah appears 
from Gabriel's enunciation to Mary. " He shall be great and shall be called 
the Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne 
(2 Sam. vii. 11-12. Is. ix. 6-7) of His father David. And He shall reign 
over the house of Jacob forever ; and of His kingdom (Dan. vii. 14-27 and 
Mi. iv. 7) there shall be no end." Lu. i. 32-33. David's family, or house, 
was not to be perpetuated in Solomon, but in Messiah, a greater than Solo- 
mon. We think that suflEicient testimony has been adduced to establish the 
far-reaching character of Nathan's vision ; that it is truly a chart of He- 
brew history, and especially of the family of David into Messiah's age. 
God accepts the good purpose of David in building Him (God) a house, 
and directs Nathan to say that God will build him (David) a house (family) 
which shall be perpetuated through all generations. Though, for ' cen- 
turies, through the iniquities of Israel and Judah, and of their kings, the 
succession may be broken, it shall be restored in a far more glorious form 
in the person of Messiah, whose kingdom and dominion shall be estab- 
lished under the whole heavens and shall stand forever. 

Solomon succeeded David — and began to reign before the death of his 
father — on his throne. During the early years of his reign he was pros- 
pered exceedingly ; built the temple, the house of God, and established the 
Temple worship in all its typical splendor. In the latter part of his gov- 
ernment, through repeated violation of God's commandments and his sins 
of idolatry, he fell under the curses of Jehovah. It is said Solomon loved 
many strange (idolatrous — W.) women, together with the daughter of Phar- 
aoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, (and) Hit- 
tites; of the nations (concerning) which the Lord said unto the children of 
Israel, " Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you ; 
(for) surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods ; Solomon 
clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and 
three hundred concubines ; and his wives turned away his heart (after 
other gods — W). For it came to pass, when Solomon was old (that) his 
wives turned away his heart after other gods ; and his heart was not perfect 
with the Lord his God, as (was) the heart of David, his father. For Solo- 
mon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, 
the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of 
the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as (did) David, his father. Then 
Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the 
hill that (is) before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the 
children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which 



HEBREW PHASE. 409 

burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods." 1 Kin. xi. 1-9. Such were 
the idolatrous practices of Solomon, for which he brought ruin upon his 
house. 

"And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned 
from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice (ch. iii. 
5. ix. 2). And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should 
not go after other gods : but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. 
Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, 
and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have com- 
manded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to 
thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy 
father's sake; (but) I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I 
will not rend away all the kingdom ; (but) I will give one tribe to thy son 
for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have 
chosen." (Deut. xii. 11 ; 1 Kin. xi. 9-13.) Solomon reigned over the 
twelve tribes 40 years. When Solomon expired the reign of the twelve- 
tribed kingdom came to an end, since which it has never existed. Two 
kingdoms arose out of its ruins, that of Israel or ten tribes, that of Judah, 
consisting of two tribes Judah and Benjamin. Was this rending the 
transfer of the kingdom from Judah to Israel ? What meaning shall we 
attach to the word "rend"? 

The reign of Solomon closing the existence of the twelve-tribed king- 
dom deserves more special notice, after which we shall examine the term 
"rend," and describe the formation of the Northern and Southern Hebrew 
confederacies. 

Solomon (shelomon) means "the peaceful one," was the youngest 
son of David, the son of his old age — a name indicative of the nature of 
his reign. Solomon in his earliest youth was under the religious tuition 
of the prophet Nathan ; also under the national instruction of his father. 
At first Absalom being David's favorite was in the way of any thought of 
David towards the heirship of his youngest son. After Absalom's death 
Adonijah, a goodly man, came next. But Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, 
had obtained from David (1 Kin. i. 13) a secret pledge that her son should 
be heir to his throne. This seems to have been first directed by Jehovah, 
as we learn from 1 Chro. xxii., 9. 10, "Behold a son shall be born to thee, 
who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies 
round about : for his name shall be Solomon (peaceable), and I will give 
peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for 
my name; and he shall be my son, and I (will be) his father; and I will 
establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever." This evidently 
includes God's promise to David relative to his house, family, throne and 
kingdom. Solomon through idolatry fell from his lofty position, yet the 
twelve-tribed kingdom was not taken from him. "Notwithstanding in 
thy days I will not do it (rend the kingdom from thee — W.) for David thy 
father's sake; (but) I willrend it out of the hand of thy son." 1 Kin. 
xi., 12. We are now prepared to define the term "rend," and show that 
rend did not signify transfer. 



410 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Rend is thus defined, (1) "To separate into parts with force or sudden 
violence; to tear asunder : as, powder rends a rock in blasting, lightning 
rends an oak. (2) To part or tear off forcibly, to split. 'An empire from 
its old foundation rent.' 'I will surely rend the kingdom from thee.'" 
1 Kin. xi. 11. The Scriptures define the word by a symbolic action : "And 
the man Jeroboam (of the tribe of Ephraim) was a mighty man of valor ; 
and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious he made him 
ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph. And it came to pass at 
that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, 
.the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new 
garment; and they two (were) alone in the field; and Ahijah caught the 
new garment that (was) on him, and rent it (in) twelve pieces; and he 
said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces; for thus saith the Lord, the God 
of Israel. Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, 
and will give ten tribes to thee. But he shall have one tribe for my 
servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city I have chosen 
out of all the tribes of Israel." 1 Kin. xi. 28-32, vs. 34. Howbeit I will 
not take the whole kingdom out of his hand. 

The rending of the twelve-tribed kingdom from Rehoboham, Solomon's 
son, was the terminus of the united kingdom and the formation of two king- 
doms, that of Israel, composed of ten tribes, and that of Judah, formed of 
two tribes, that of Benjamin and of Judah. Henceforth the ten-tribed 
kingdom formed the northern confederacy, and the two-tribed kingdom, 
known as the southern confederacy or the kingdom of Judah. 

V. Epoch of the two Hebrew Nationalities, Israel and Judah. — We 
have followed the Hebrew family through its first four stages or epochs of 
progressive growth and race development. We have traced it through its 
embryotic or Egyptian state as it multiplied into a nation ; followed it in 
its infantile nursing during forty years in the wilderness; followed it dur- 
ing its theocratic childhood under Joshua and the judges while subjugating 
the Canaanites and taking possession of the land, and have now traced 
their history through the twelve-tribed monarchy, including the reign of 
Saul, David, and Solomon. During these four epochs God has uniformly 
recognized that family as His own in a sense peculiar to that race alone, as 
distinguished from every other human family, and called Himself their 
Father and Supreme Ruler, and that people His son and first-born. The 
supreme power continues under Saul, David, and Solomon. The promised 
one seed evidently lies in embryo somewhere in this lineage. God is 
watching over that seed, and has a watchful eye over the destinies of that 
family that carries in its bosom that priceless jewel, the stone which, in- 
creased to a mountain, is in the future to fill the whole earth. Every move- 
ment of the Hebrew family, during these four progressive epochs, marks 
the development of some vast and complicated plan of Jehovah in the des- 
tiny of this peculiar people. He has for that family a place and a work. 
In the coming kingdom of His Son. Messiah over all the earth, the Hebrew 
family has its peculiar location and work. We have called that location 
the centre of all countries, the hub of Messiah's great national wheel. That 



HEBREW PHASE. 411 

its education and discipline have all been shaped to enable it to subserve 
God's purpose in that useful and very responsible position. In tracing 
Hebrew history their remarkable destiny must always be kept in view. We 
shall then be prepared, to see the reasonableness and certainty of their 
future return and nationality. God's original purpose, relative to the future 
royalty of His Son, must and will have its accomplishment. 

If it is declared that the future national arrangement has the Hebrew 
family as its centre or hub, they must be restored to that national center at 
any cost of treasure and blood. Has not the Almighty stated His purpose? 
(Deut. xxxii. 8. 9.) Is He not able to execute His plan of nationality? and 
will He not carry it in His own way, by His own people, and in His own 
appointed line? To doubt Jehovah's ability would be equivalent to His 
dethronement. And in carrying out His arrangements He puts into execu- 
tion His own system of education and national drill. This system it is our 
purpose to follow through every epoch of Hebrew history.. In this way we 
shall be prepared to solve every problem connected with Israel and Judah, 
past and still to come; from the call of Abraham to their national union 
on the mountains of Israel under the triumphant reign of Prince Messiah. 

The specialties of their drill and their purposes will come under review 
also. Why these are removed from country to country. Why, in one land, 
they multiply and prosper; in another, they are made nomadic; in another, 
put up into an empire; in another, sifted, scattered and made a hissing. 
We shall see that there is a unity of purpose in this variety of training. 
Why was Abraham called out of Ur, of Chaldea? God gives the reason, "I 
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name 
great; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth 
thee : and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. xii. 
2. 3. How could Abraham be made a great nation and the father of many 
nations, be blessed himself and bless all nations, unless he with his family 
is made a kosmopolite? He and his family, or one division of it, must 
associate with the families of Ham and Japheth, and impart to each family 
some traits of character which will result in substantial good, tending to 
their happiness. The Chaldeans were " mad on their idols." Or appears to 
have been a nursery for idolatrous priests, as Benares in India is now 
among the Hindoos. If Abraham had continued in that country of idols^, 
he would never have risen above that of an idolatrous idol-maker and 
worshiper. His future history would have been a blank. God had selected 
a family of great physical, moral, and mental elasticity; and, having chosen 
suitable material. He begins to shape and develop the agent. For a full 
and perfect development he must have a land for himself and posterity, and 
at the same time associate with all other families. 

God's special instruction of this family cannot be better expressed than 
in the language of inspiration: " He found him in a desert land, and in 
the waste-howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed him. He 
kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirred up her nest, fluttereth 
over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead 
him, and no strange god with him." Deut. xxxii. 10, 11, 12. It is impossi- 



412 THE EASTEKN QUESTION, 

ble that Jehovah should manifest such parental aflfection for any people as 
is here written without He has chosen them to answer in His purpose of 
national arrangement — some special mission. Such a mission appears in 
every division of Hebrew training. Abraham, raised in Chaldean idolatry, 
becomes a nomad, a shepherd, travels through Palestine till made familiar 
with a wandering life; then goes down into Egypt, at that time the centre 
of the world's civilization ; then returns to the land of promise, there to 
spend his latter years in training Isaac to a quiet life, and giving birth, 
through other wives and concubines, to those persons who should found 
various other nationalities. Abraham's life fitted him to be the father of 
the faithful. Descended from Shem, he associates, in Egypt and in the 
south, with the family of Ham; and in other positions with the tribes of 
Japheth. Thus were the races crossed and mixed. Isaac gave name to the 
seed, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." His posterity have been traced 
into the islands of the West, to the Saxon race. See "British Phase of the 
Eastern Question." Jacob's education was peculiar, yet under the im- 
mediate eye of Jehovah, and well adapted to the mission he was called 
to fill. His name is changed to Israel and in Egypt: under Joseph he 
multiplies into a vast multitude. It was the land of Israel's spawning. In 
Egypt the Hebrew family learned agriculture and many other industrial 
branches. In servitude they learned industry and obedience. Here they 
formed associations with the family of Ham, and improved their social 
qualities: but the principal object in their lengthy sojourn was that they 
might rapidly multiply into a host. The future nation here lay in embryo 
waiting for the period of their birth at the Red Sea. 

Their education in the wilderness continued for the space of forty 
years, during which as a nation, they were rocked in the cradle of infancy, 
their training partook of a negative character so far as Egyptian idolatry 
was concerned. Their making a golden calf in the absence of Moses, when 
contemplating a return into Egypt, was one instance which showed the 
necessity of being excluded from all heathen worship, especially as they 
were receiving the rudiments of the only true religion. As infants receive 
parental food, care, and training, so God saw fit to have His " first-born," 
spend its early infancy in a wilderness away from the enticements of cor- 
rupt nations. Forty years of separation in a desert was not sufficient to 
secure them from the idolatry of the Canaanites. The commissary, the 
social, civil, and theological departments were under the special supervision 
of the Almighty as their Father, who had His visible abode (tabernacle) in 
their midst, and the cloud as the visible symbol of His presence. A code 
of laws or rules was written on tables of stone and carried with them as 
their divinely given text book. This divine code was composed of minute 
regulations about their faith and practices. They were therein taught 
their own nature, the attributes of God and all reciprocal obligations. The 
ten commandments were their civil and theological library, not only for 
the Hebrews in the wilderness, but for that people and for all other 
nationalities whose moral obligations are recognized. 

In the wilderness was erected the first university, with its departments 



HEBREW PHASE. 413 

sufficiently numerous and ample in instruction to answer the wants of 
man from infancy to old age. In this wilderness university, founded by 
Jehovah himself, is furnished the most thorough system for human develop- 
ment and training that was ever devised. Since the giving of this divine 
text-book, amid the thunders of Sinai, man has made many feeble imita- 
tions, and its principles form the moral basis of all civilized codes even to 
this day. Who can doubt the divine origin of those laws? Could a 
nation of bond-men have originated it? The thoughts are not Egyptian, 
neither Hamitic, neither did they originate in the brain of Japheth, nor 
are they of Shem, but they are of God. The wilderness seminary was 
movable, following the Hebrews into the land of Canaan. 

The education of the Hebrews under Joshua and the Judges, which 
continued over 450 years, was peculiar. The Canaanites had to be driven 
out, the land cleansed of its idolatry, and fitted for the location of the pure 
worship of Jehovah, and adapted to the wants of a nation of royal priests. 
God still continued to be their Governor, and their government was, there- 
fore, a Theocracy, (God ruling). This was a period of great temptation. 
In many instances they made leagues with the Canaanites, and followed 
their worship. The land was not conquered and the Canaanites still dwelt 
in the land. The Theocracy gave way to the twelve-tribed kingdom. 
Under Saul, David and Solomon, that kingdom grew to one of great note. 
Under Saul there was a contest between the Canaanites, and finally between 
their families. David's family finally exterminated that of Saul. David's 
reign was bloody, but quite free from heathen idolatry. So free that God 
promised his family an endless perpetuation under one of his sons. Under 
all these educational changes, God holds the presidency. Under Solomon 
peace was secured, and idolatry introduced. So oppressive and idolatrous 
was the latter years of Solomon's reign, that God resolved to rend his king- 
dom, but not in the days of Solomon for David his father's sake. 

Having given a sketch of Hebrew history to the close of the reign of 
Solomon, let us examine the natural cause of the division under Reho- 
boam, and trace them through their separate nationalities. 

Solomon's reign in its closing period was idolatrous, this idolatry 
formed no objection to the masses, though, in the estimation of Jehovah, it 
was a sin of the first class. The people complained of his oppressive taxes. 
Solomon, the son of David, was of the tribe of Judah. Ever since their 
wanderings in the wilderness the tribe of Ephraim, which was powerful, 
and stood at the head of ten tribes, was jealous of the position of Judah. 
Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, remembered that their father was 
the savior of the Hebrews, found them a home in Egypt, and acted as their 
shepherd and founder of Jacob's family. In the blessings of Jacob on his 
sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are adopted as his sons, and receive great 
and glorious promises from their grandfather. These historic facts had 
been kept in memory. There had, therefore, long existed a hostile feeling 
between Judah, which was made the chief of the tribes in their marches, 
and Ephraim the head of what became the northern confederacy. What 
has Judah done, they often thought, that we should follow him ? Under 



414 THE EASTEHN QUESTION, 

David they submitted, and there was an apparent union of the two hostile 
factions ; but under Solomon's reign their taxes became so enormous that 
nothing but Solomon's centralizing power and the temple worship, pre- 
vented an open rupture and the rending of the kingdom. God by His di- 
rect agency prevented the rupture till the death of Solomon. Jeroboam, 
the son of Nebat, son of Zeruah, had lifted up his hand against Solomon, the 
king. Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, was a man of great valor. And 
Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler 
over all the charge of the house of Joseph. Solomon learning the symbolic 
act of Ahijah (the rending of his garment into twelve pieces) and of the 
interpretation given by the prophet, sought to kill Jeroboam. He fled from 
Solomon into Egypt. After the death of Solomon he returned, and ap- 
peared before Rehoboam at the head of the congregation of Israel saying, 
" Thy father made our yoke grievous ; now, therefore, make thou the 
grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, 
lighter, and we will serve thee." (Judah under Rehoboam — W). Reho- 
boam, promising an answer in three days, consulted with the old men that 
stood before Solomon, his father, while he yet lived, and said. How do ye 
advise me to answer this people? They say, Treat the people kindly and 
they will serve thee forever. 

This counsel of Solomon's sages was excellent, but did not suit the in- 
tended practices of the youthful king. The advice of the young men, his 
companions, was then obtained, when the following answer, returned to 
Israel, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your 
yoke ; my father (also) chastised you with whips; but I will chastise you 
with scorpions. Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for 
the cause was from the Lord, that He might perform His saying, which the 
Lord spake by Ahijah, the Shilonite, unto Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, I 
will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, (Rehoboam) and will 
give ten tribes to thee (Jeroboam). The people answered the king, saying : 
*' What portion have we in David ? Neither (have we) inheritance in the 
the son of Jesse; to your tents, Israel, (10 tribes) now see .to thine own 
house, David. So Israel (10 tribes — W.) departed to their tents." See 1 
Kin. xi., xii. and xiii. " But (as for) the children of Israel (Judah and 
Benjamin — W.) which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned 
over them. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who (was) over the 
tribute ; and all Israel (10 tribes — W.) stoned him with stones, that he 
died. Therefore, King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot 
to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel (10 tribes — W.) rebelled against the house 
of David unto this day." If the ten tribes rebelled against the house of 
David, how could it be that the house of David went off with the ten 
tribes? "And it came to pass when all Israel (10 tribes — W.) heard that 
Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congre- 
gation, and made him king over all Israel (10 tribes — W.) ; there was none 
that followed the house of David (kingdom of David — W.) but the tribe of 
Judah only (only whole tribe — W). And when Rehoboam was come to 
Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benja- 



HEBREW PHASE. 415 

min, a hundred and four score thousand chosen men, which were warriors, 
to fight against the house of Israel (kingdom of Israel, or ten tribes — W.) 
to bring the kingdom (12 tribed as under David and Solomon — W.) again 
to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. But the word of God came unto 
Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solo- 
mon, king of Judah, (how is he king if his kingdom was transferred to 
Jeroboam?— W.) and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to 
the remnant of the people (of the ten tribes) saying, Thus saith the Lord, 
Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel 
(10 tribes — W.) ; return every man to his house ; for this thing (the rend- 
ing of the ten tribes — W.) is from me. They hearkened therefore to the 
word of tHi Lord, and returned to depart, according to the word of the 
Lord." 1 Kin. xii. 17-24. Such is the reading of the inspired record rela- 
tive to the rending of the twelve-tribed kingdom as it existed under David 
and Solomon, and of the formation of the kingdom of Israel out of ten 
tribes ; a new kingdom with Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, as their 
first king ; and the continuance of the house of David, with its capital 
and worship under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. The kingdom (house 
— W.) was " rent," but not " transferred." This distinction must be kept 
up to avoid a great error, relative to the house of David and the genealogy 
of the true seed which is to occupy the throne of David, the point on which 
we insist is this. The rending was not a transfer. Ten tribes were rent 
from the twelve tribes, leaving the house of David as it was during his 7^ 
years reign in Hebron. All the kingdom was not rent away ; only ten 
parts leaving the house, (the kingdom of David — W.) the king, govern- 
ment, capital, temple and its worship intact. The language of Jehovah 
relative to the act, the cause and its results, is very explicit. He (God) had 
sworn to David that his house (kingdom) should never cease as did the 
house of Saul. " I will take the whole kingdom out of his (Solomon's — 
W.) hand. I will take the kingdom (10 tribes) out of his son's hand and 
give it unto thee (Jeroboam). And unto his (Solomon's — W.) son will give 
one (whole) tribe, and a part of a tribe (Benjamin — W). Why ? that 
David, my servant, may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the 
city which I have chosen .me (Jehovah) to put my name there." 1 Kin. 
xi. 35-36. A transfer of the house of David would render this language 
incorrect. Jerusalem had been chosen by Jehovah to put His name and 
His house there. Jesus, the heir to David's throne, called Jerusalem the 
City of the Great King. How could it be such with the house of David 
removed ? If the kingdom of David was transferred to the 10 tribes, or 
Israel, why was any left for David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake ? Would 
not David's interest have followed his house (kingdom) ? How could the 
kingdom have been taken from the Jews (Judah — W.) if it had been trans- 
ferred to Israel (10 tribes) a thousand years previous? The language of 
Jesus distinctly teaches that David's royalty, and the Lord's house, were, at 
tha.t time, in Jerusalem. And the genealogies as given by Matthew and 
Luke follow the tribe of Judah, in an unbroken line from David to Solo- 
mon, then to Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jot- 



416 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Jakim, Jechoniah, (here follows 
the 70 years' captivity in Babylon), Salathiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, 
Azor, Sadoc, Achim, Eliud, Eleazer, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph — the legal 
father of Christ. Luke follows the genealogy from Jesus through his 
mother Mary, whose name could not appear in the Hebrew genealogical 
tables. Jesus was supposed to be the son of Joseph. Joseph's father was 
Jacob, (Matt. i. 16.) but having married the daughter of Heli, and being 
perhaps adopted by him, he was called his son, and as such, was entered in 
the public registers. Joseph, Mary's husband's name, is inserted as the son 
of him who was, in reality, but his father-in-law. Hence, as Matthew 
wrote principally for the Jews, he traces the pedigree of Jesus Christ from 
Abraham, through whom the promise was given to the Jews^-to David. 
And from David, through the line of Solomon, to Jacob, the'^father of 
Joseph, the reputed, or legal father of Christ ; St. Luke, who wrote for the 
Gentiles, extends his genealogy upwards from Heli, the father of Mary, 
through the line of Nathan, to David, and from David to Abraham. The 
two branches of descent from David, by Solomon and Nathan, being thus 
united in the persons of Mary and Joseph, Jesus, the son of Mary, reunited 
in Himself all the blood, privileges, and rights of the whole family of 
David, in consequence of which He is emphatically called " The Son of 
David." The house and lineage of David (though existing in poverty), 
in its two branches, Joseph and Mary, through Solomon and Nathan, were 
living in the city of Nazareth, though of Bethlehem. (Lu. ii. 4-5.) And 
as Jesus was to be David's royal son that was to occupy his throne forever, 
and as He was born in Judea, the land of promise, it was necessary that 
Judah should hold the unbroken line of the sceptre till the birth of the 
true seed, the Lion of Judah, there could not be allowed any lengthy break 
in this line, or Jesus' right to David's throne could not have been estab- 
lished. Hence, the Hebrew genealogy names those that were in the regu- 
lar line during the Babylonian captivity ; Jechonah, Salathiel and Zerub- 
babel. Matt. i. 12. This point is of the first consequence, since Judah's 
mission was to give birth to the one seed, and remain in the land of the 
seed till He (Messiah) heir to David's throne should be born, Israel was to 
be lost ; — disappear under a new name. 

It will be necessary to follow critically the House (family or kingdom) 
of David till its future establishment on the mountains of Israel. When ? 
and under what circumstances did it leave the land of Israel ? When ? anc 
under whom shall it be restored? The new kingdom under Jeroboam^ 
forming the Northern Confederacy of the ten tribes, continued as a dis- 
tinct royalty in Canaan, the land of promise, from B. C. 975 to B. C. 720 — 
255 years. Some authors say 274 years. They went into captivity 133 years 
before Judah was carried into Babylon. This period of 2|- centuries was 
occupied by five reigning families at least; perhaps six dynasties, having 
nineteen successive monarchs, viz. (1) Jeroboam, who reigned 22 years. 
When seated on his throne he thus reasoned, "If my subjects are com- 
pelled to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple of Solomon they will 
soon return and I shall be driven from my throne." He resolved, therefore, 



HEBREW PHASE. 417 

to change the religion of his subjects. He made two golden calves and in- 
troduced idolatry in its most offensive forms. A new temple was erected 
and a new priesthood was appointed, Jeroboam is considered the father of 
Israel's idolatry, and is thus spoken of during the entire history of that 
nation. 

(2) Jeroboam was succeeded by his son Nadab, who reigned two years, 
walking in the footsteps of his father. 

(3) Baacha, of the house of Issachar, put an end to the house of Jero- 
boam, and reigned twenty-four years. His reign was idolatrous and full of 
evil. 

(4) Elah, his son, in the 20th year of Asa, King of Judah, followed 
in an idolatrous reign of only two years ; a short reign and distinguished 
by its open corruption. 

(5) Zimri, his servant, destroyed the whole house of Baasha, and 
reigned only seven days. He carried out the idolatry of Jeroboam. 

(6) Omri built Samaria and reigned twelve years. He was more 
wicked than all that had reigned before him, walking in all the corrupt 
practices of Jeroboam. 

(7) Ahab, his son, reigned in his stead, beginning to reign in the 38th 
year of Asa, King of Judah. Taking to wife Jezebel, daughter of the 
Sidonian king; a people addicted to all the vices incident to luxury, 
united with idolatry. She was a Phoenician princess. She possessed the 
reckless and licentious habits of an Oriental queen, and the sternest and 
fiercest qualities inherent in her own people. She ruled her husband, and 
fully established the Phoenician worship throughout Israel, especially in 
the court of Ahab. ''At her table were supported no less than 450 prophets 
of Baal and 400 of Astarte. She put to death the prophets of Jehovah. 
She attempted to slay Elijah, but met the hand of an offended Majesty. 
The imprint of her character never left Israel till they went into their long 
captivity." Ahab reigned from B. C. 910 to B. C. 896 — 25 years. 

(8) Ahaziah, his son, was put to death after a reign of two years. 
He was a zealous supporter of the worship of Baal, following the pat- 
tern of Jeroboam. 

(9) Jehoram, his brother, succeeded to the throne of Israel (ten tribes) 
in the 18th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. He was on 
the throne twelve years. He put a^s'ay the image of Baal, but walked in 
all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, polluting God's holy land. 

(10) Jehu was the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, not of 
Asa, was anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. He slew the kings of 
Israel, Jehoram and Ahaziah, also destroyed Jezebel. He was anointed to 
this office by a young man sent by Elisha, one of God's special prophets. 
His destruction of the prophets of Baal in the immense temple of Sa- 
maria was one of the most noted events of his reign. At one stroke the 
whole idol worshiping population of Israel was suddenly removed by the 
hands of 80 trusted guards. He did not, however, destroy the calf wor- 
ship of Jeroboam. His name is the first of the Israelite kings which 
appears in the Assyrian monuments, probably not until that reign was 

27 



418 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the kingdom of Israel, particularly known to the Assyrian. Jehu was 
the founder of the fifth dynasty and reigned over Israel twenty-eight 
years, with the promise that his family should occupy the throne of Israel 
through four generations. 

(11) Jehoahaz, his son, hegan to reign in the 23d year of Joash, 
King of Judah, and continues on the throne seventeen years. He walked 
in all the sins of Jeroboam. God began to cut Israel short under Jehu, 
which continued until' they were finally removed. Under Jehoahaz " the 
anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and He delivered them 
into the hand of Hazael, King of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad, 
the son of Hazael, all (their) days." Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and 
the Lord hearkened unto him ; for He saw the oppression of Israel, be» 
cause the king of Syria oppressed them. "And the Lord gave Israel a 
savior (deliverer — Joash) and they went out from under the hand of the 
Syrians ; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before time. 
Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, 
who made Israel sin, (but) walked therein, and there remained also the 
grove in Samaria. Neither did He leave of the people to Jehoahaz but 
fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen ; for the 
king of Syria had destroyed them and had made them like the dust by 
threshing." 2 Ki. xiii. 3-8. 

(12) Joash, son of Jehoahaz, succeeded his father in the 37th year 
of Joash, King of Judah, and reigned sixteen years. He carried out all 
the idolatrous practices of Jeroboam. 

(13) Jeroboam II., his son, began to reign in the 15th year of Ama- 
ziah, the son of Joash, King of Judah, and reigned 41 years. " He fol- 
lowed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He had success in restor- 
ing the northern boundaries of Israel. For the Lord saw the affliction of 
Israel (that it was) very bitter, for (there was) not any shut up, nor any 
left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that He would blot 
out the name of Israel from under heaven ; but He saved them by the 
hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash."' 2 Kin. xiv. 23, 24, 25, 27. After the 
death of Jeroboam II. there was an interregnum of 11 years. 

(14) Zachariah, son of Jeroboam, began to reign in the 38th year of 
Azariah, King of Judah, and filled the throne only seven months, being 
put to death by Shallum, who reigned in his stead. 

(15) Shallum reigned only one month and fell. 

(16) Menahem slew Shallum, and began to reign in the 39th year of 
Azariah, King of Judah, and occupied the throne of Israel, in Samaria, ten 
years. He was an idolater as well as a monster of cruelty. He robbed 
Israel to give tribute to the king of Assyria. 

(17) Pekahiah began to reign over Israel instead of his father Mena^ 
hem, in the 50th year of Azariah, King of Judah. His reign continued 
two years, and was after the pattern of the reign of Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat. Israel still filling her cup. 

(18). Pekah, son of Remaliah, slew him and took his throne. Under 
this king began Israel's first captivity to Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria. 



HEBEEW PHASE. 419 

Pekah reigned over Israel 20 years, following the practices of Jeroboam, tlie 
son of Nebat. Thus did Jeroboam establish a system of idolatrous wor- 
ship that clung to Israel till the beginning of their long captivity. This 
Assyrian king removed the first colony of Israel into captivity. 

(19) Hoshea began to reign over Israel in the 12th year of Ahaz, 
King of Judah. In the 9th year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took 
Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, 
and by the river Habor, in Gozan, B. C. 720. 

" Israel was rent from the house of David." 2 Kin. xvii. The fact 
that Israel was rent from the house of David is worthy of note since it 
demonstrates that the house of David in its rent form remained with Reho- 
boam, and continued in that kingdom till it gave birth to Jesus, the Mes- 
siah, David's royal son. We do not purpose to follow Israel any further at 
present. We have traced them through the British Phase. Their history 
will come up again in our conclusion. Their separate history, in the land 
of promise, is remarkable in every particular. For more than two and one- 
half centuries, under nineteen kings, they were permitted to occupy God's 
own favored land. What was their education ? What character did they 
develop ? The attentive reader is fully prepared to answer these questions 
correctly. 

Their religious education was principally idolatrous. God exercised 
parental authority by sending them His true, His boldest, and His most 
able prophets. Among these were Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah. These 
prophets taught Israel in the darkest period of the idolatrous reign of Ahab 
with his Sidonian Jezebel. Baal's prophets were counted by hundreds, 
while Jehovah's prophets were nearly all banished from the kingdom. 
Elijah thought that he was alone, but God showed him that He had re- 
served seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 
Among all their kings there was not one redeeming reign. Jehu was 
anointed to exterminate the family of Ahab. The Israelites were more 
idolatrous than those who were driven from the land. Many of the tribes 
were taught to navigate the ocean. Their commerce grew and spread west- 
ward to the sea islands. Their separate training prepared them to form 
other nationalities. Still the terms which God authorized His prophets to 
use showed that He regarded them as a member of His own family. An- 
other point of special note is the constant change of dynasties or reigning 
families. Ahab was the fifth dynasty from Jeroboam. Two others fol- 
lowed. They were rent from the house of David, and the reigning family 
was constantly changing. During these years of separate regal existence 
they were not the house of David. David's house was a unit as to family, 
while seven successive families reigned over Israel. Jeroboam's family be- 
came extinct according to God's declaration. Ahab introduced the fifth 
dynasty, and Jehu was anointed to destroy the family of Ahab. And here 
let us call the attention of the reader to the rent house of David, over 
which Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was called to reign. During the' 
same period the rent house of David, ruled by Judah, has no change of 
dynasty. Let us see. David, Solomon, his son ; Rehoboam, his son; Abi' 



420 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

jam, his son ; Asa, his son ; Jehoshaphat, his son ; Jehoram, his son ; 
Ahaziah, his son ; Ataliah (queen and daughter of Ahab) ; Joash, his son 
(of Ahaziah) ; Amaziah, his son ; Azariah, his son ; Jotham, his son ; Ahaz, 
his son ; Hezekiah, his son ; Manasseh, his son ; after the captivity of the 
ten tribes, Amon, his son ; Josiah, his son ; Jehoahaz, his son ; Eliakim, 
son of Josiah ; Jehoichin, his son ; Mattaniah, changed to Zedekiah, son of 
Josiah. Here we come to Judah's captivity in Babylon. In 274 years 
Israel has seven dynasties ; and in 407 years Judah has only one, house of 
David. Since the house of David continued with Judah to the captivity 
in Babylon, 407 years, and the reigning house of Israel had changed seven 
times, at least, before its captivity, it is very evident that the house of 
David was not with Israel during its separate nationality (274 years). If, 
therefore, there is ever a transfer of the house of David to Israel it can not 
be earlier than the captivity of Judah in Babylon, 133 years later than the 
captivity of Israel. In tracing the house of David we find it necessary to 
follow the kings of Judah. The royal line of David will be traced in the 
kingdom of Judah till Jesus of Nazareth appears ; of the house of David 
both in his legal and blood (by his mother) lineage. 

The education and character of Judah from Rehoboam to its captivity 
in Babylon demand special notice, because in that kingdom we shall find 
the line of the promised seed, and the house and lineage of David. 

Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, succeeded his father to the twelve- 
tribed throne. After the secession of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, Rehoboam undertook to put down the rebellion, and again 
establish the twelve-tribed kingdom of his father. In this effort he was 
met by Jehovah, who informed the king that the rending of the kingdom 
had His own supreme authority. Learning this sad intelligence he dis- 
banded his army and returned home. He M^as to be satisfied with what 
his grandfather David ruled over in Hebron, Judah and part of the tribe of 
Benjamin. There was usually either war or an unpleasant feeling existing 
between Judah and Israel during their joint occupation of the land of 
promise, wisely, perhaps, in order to keep Judah free from Israel's gross 
idolatry. It was idol worship in Solomon that rent his kingdom under his 
son, and it was the same great sin that removed the ten tribes into their 
long captivity. The same sin banished Judah 70 years. 

It is well to see what Rehoboam lost in the defection. A garment is 
selected as a symbol of the twelve-tribed kingdom under Solomon. The 
garment is rent into twelve pieces, each piece representing a tribe, ten parts 
are given to Jeroboam and two parts remain with Rehoboam. Rehoboam 
suffers the loss of ten tribes. No symbol of royalty is removed. He is left 
in the possession of a kingdom rent of ten of its parts or tribes ; a king- 
dom debased by the loss of ten, out of twelve provinces. It is still a king- 
dom reigned over by the house of David of the tribe of Judah, while the 
ten tribes form a new kingdom of the house of Joseph, which commences 
here its separate history and originates the house of the multitudinous 
seed. 

To Rehoboam remained the family of the one seed, the house of David. 



HEBREW PHASE. 421 

The holy city of Jerusalem, where Jehovah had recorded His name to the 
temple, its sacred features, priesthood, and service. All the symbols of the 
royal priesthood still remained intact — the same nation humbled through 
its idolatry. The ten tribes under Jeroboam laid no claims to the house of 
David ; for against that house they rebelled, saying, What portion have we 
in David? Neither (have we) inheritance in the son (David — W.) of 
Jesse ; to your tents, Israel ; now see to thine own house, David. The 
house of David was not divided, nor rent; but the twelve-tribed kingdom 
over which the family of David reigned was rent and divided between two 
people, composed of two rival interests — those of Judah and Benjamin, at- 
tached to the house of David ; and those of the ten tribes under the 
dominant rule of the house of .Joseph, which gives birth to the national 
tree, whose branches run over the wall; whose sons (Ephraim and Manas- 
seh) were to be a " multitude of nations," and a great nation. In the 
twelve-tribed kingdom were the elements of two rival empires, the house of 
Joseph, who, in Egypt, was the support (stone) shepherd of the Hebrew 
nation, and those elements associated with the family of David, from which 
Messiah, the one seed, was to be born. With these preliminary thoughts as 
our guide, let us hasten towards the Lion of the tribe of Judah, of the 
house of David. Rehoboam reigned seventeen years. His sin was that of 
idolatry. The rebellion was not sufficient to banish idolatry out of Judah. 

(2) Abijam, son of Rehoboam, reigned two years. His reign was 
noted for the growth of all the idolatrous practices of his father. 

(3) Asa, his son, reigned in his stead. He did right in the eyes of 
Jehovah, and, therefore, had a protracted reign of forty-one years. He car- 
ried on wars with Israel, all of which had their origin in the growth of 
idolatry. 

(4) Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned twenty-five years. He did right in 
the sight of the Lord, and was prospered, and increased the agricultural 
and commercial wealth of the nation. He patronized the worship of the 
true God as established in the temple service. " Righteousness exalteth a 
nation." 

(5) Jehoram, his son, reigned first in partnership, then alone on the 
throne of Judah, eight years. " He walked in the way of the kings of Is- 
rael, as did the house of Ahab ; for the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and 
he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, yet Jehovah would not destroy Judah 
for David, His servant's sake, as He promised him to give him always a 
(lamp-light), (and) to his children." 2 Kin. viii. 18-19. God's promise to 
David protects Judah. 

(6) Ahaziah, his son, reigned one year, and was slain by Jehu. He 
was an idolater, and he allied himself with his uncle Jehoram, King of Is- 
rael, brother and successor of the preceding Ahaziah. Ahaziah died B. C. 
884. He fell by Jehovah's executioner. 

(7) Athaliah (queen). "And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, 
saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But 
Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the 
son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons (which were) 



422 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

slain, and they hid him, (even) him and his nurse, in the bedchamber, 
from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the 
house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land." 2 
Kin. xi. 1-4. Who can question the Divine Providence of this act ? The 
one seed was to be born of the house of David. He was to be the son of 
David, by law and by the flesh. A wicked woman undertakes, by destroy- 
ing, as she thought, all the seed of the kingdom, to falsify God's oath to 
David. She, confident of her success, sits on the throne of David — on the 
throne of God. The sister of Ahaziah is used by Jehovah, as an agent, to 
protect and perpetuate the royal line of David. Athaliah attempted to 
carry out two events or purposes, in both of which she was defeated, they 
both being against the will of Jehovah. (1) She aimed to unite under 
her rule both Israel and Judah, abolish the priesthood and temple service, 
and establish the worship of Baal. She was the daughter of Ahab, grand- 
daughter of Omri. Her mother was the Sidonian Jezebel, the wife of Je- 
horam. King of Judah. After a reign of six years she was slain, and Joash, 
at the age of seven, took the throne of Judah as a son of David, he being 
of that house. (2) Her attempt to destroy all the seed royal was also a 
failure. 

(8) Joash, son of Ahaziah, reigned in Jerusalem B. C. 896 to B. C. 856 
— 40 years. His reign was long and prosperous, " doing what was right all 
bis days wherein Jehoiada had instructed him. But the high places were 
not taken away ; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high 
places." 2 Kin. xii. 1-2. 

(9) Amaziah, his son, reigned in Jerusalem twenty and nine years. 
And he did right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David, his father, 
but followed the pattern of his father Joash. The high places dedicated to 
heathen worship still continued. 

(10) Azariah, (correctly) Uzziah, his son, reigned fifty-two years in 
Jerusalem. "And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all 
that his father Amaziah had done; save that the high places were not 
removed, the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places. 
He was influenced in a high degree, during the forepart of his reign, by a 
prophet, Zechariah. The southern confederacy was brought to the pros- 
perity of the days of Solomon. Towards the close of his reign, elated by 
his success, he determined to burn incense on the altar of God, but was 
opposed by the priest Azariah and eighty others. The king was enraged 
at their resistance, and, as he pressed forward with his censer, was suddenly 
smitten with leprosy which clung to him to his death. God's order of 
worship was strict as to the supreme object of worship and also in its form 
and its administrators. Kings ruled, priests attended to the services of 
the altar. In the days of Uzziah was a great earthquake, typical of the 
one named in Zech. xiv. 5. How distinct is God seen in the midst of His 
people, governing their national worship. 

(11) Jotham, his son, reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did 
right, like his father, yet the high places of idol worship remained. 

(12) Ahaz, his son, reigned sixteen years. He was a wicked ruler, fol- 



HEBREW PHASE. 423 

lowing after the pattern (in worship) of the kings of Israel, and "made 
his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the 
heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And 
he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and 
under every green tree." 

(13) Hezekiah, his son, reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. He 
followed the pattern of his father David. He removed the high places, 
and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the 
brazen serpent, that Moses had made (it being worshiped) : for unto those 
days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehush- 
tan. "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel: so that after him was none 
like him among all the kings of Judah, nor (any) that were before him, 
and he clave to the Lord, (and) departed not from following Him, but kept 
His commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord 
was with him ; (and) he prospered whithersoever he went forth : and he 
rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the 
Philistines (even) unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of 
the watchman to the fenced city." 2 Kin. xviii. 3-9. "In the fourth year 
of king Hezekiah, which (was) the seventh year of Hoshea, the son of 
Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against 
Samaria (Capital of Israel — W.) and besieged it. And at the end of three 
years they took it : (even) in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that (is) the 
ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken." 2 Kin. xviii. 
9. 10. It is remarkable that Israel should close its idolatrous history in 
Palestine, when Judah was under the reign of the best king of David's 
family next to the Messiah. For wise purposes it was thus ordered. 

Israel's captivity and the reason which Jehovah condescended to assign 
evidently had an influence upon the conduct of Hezekiah. In Israel's 
overthrow he saw the legitimate fruits of idolatry. On account of debas- 
ing idolatry, the Canaanites had been dispossessed. The land of promise 
was God's own land, to be occupied by Himself as supreme Governor and 
His own special family, devoted to His laws, and to His wise plan of 
nationalities to fill the earth. The Hebrews entered the land under the 
divine code whose laws were prefaced by, "Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me. Thou shalt not make to thee any graven image, or any likeness 
(of anything) that (is) in heaven above, or that (is) in the earth beneath, 
or that (is) in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thy- 
self to them, nor serve them." Why thus forbidden? 

(1) I (am) the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (2) For I the Lord thy God (am) 
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto 
the third and fourth (generation) of them that hate me, and showing 
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 
Instead of driving out the idolatrous heathen whose cups were all full, that 
they might not be tempted to the practice of their idolatry, they spared 
man}'-, and intermarried with them. Solomon was idolatrous, because of 
which his kingdom was rent, under his son. The northern confederacy 



424 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

formed, under Jeroboam, of ten tribes, went into the practice of every 
species of idolatry practiced in Canaan. Associated in commerce with the 
Phoenicians, they imitated them in their idol worship. Israel, though 
apart of the special family of Jehovah, became grossly idolatrous, even 
going beyond those nations who had been driven out. Under Ahab and 
his wife, the Sidonian Jezebel, Israel stood at the head of heathen idolatry. 
The idolatrous worship introduced by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, their 
first king, followed Israel 274 years, even down to the commencement of a 
captivity that has continued 26 centuries. Of their seven dynasties and 
nineteen kings, covering a space of 274 years, there was not one redeeming 
administration. All were idolatrous, either worshiping Baal and other 
gods of Canaan, or else following the idol system of Jeroboam. Jehu, under 
Elisha, was anointed to destroy the house of Ahab, which was effectually 
and furiously done : still, the worship of the two golden calves of Jeroboam 
continued, and the high places, groves, and green trees were visited by the 
nation of Israel, till God removed them out of his presence. 

(6) Sixth epoch of Hebrew history, Israel in its protracted captivity ; 
from B. C. 720 to the present time, 2604 years. Her profane histosy we 
have already given under the British Phase of the Eastern Question, to 
which we refer the reader. Their divine or prophetic history will be found 
in the writings of the prophets, which now claim attention. Did the Om- 
niscient make known to the prophets the future history of Israel or the 
ten tribes ? Did He predict their banishment ? Did He reveal an outline 
of their history during their protracted exile ? These questions we now 
propose to investigate. What say the prophets? Did they foretell their 
banishment ? If so, what did they say would be their state in exile ? In 
order to understand the prophetic predictions, we must separate the 
prophecies concerning Israel from those that relate simply to Judah. How 
do the prophets use the terms Israel and Judah? This question is vital to 
the proper understanding of our subject. The origin of the term " Israel" 
(the name of Jacob) is so familiar that we pass it without any special re- 
marks. The term Israel was applied generically to one division of the 
twelve-tribed kingdom under Rehoboam. In Egj^pt, in the wilderness 
under Joshua, the theocracy; and under the dominion of Saul, David, and 
Solomon, the term Israel was applied to the twelve tribes indiscriminately. 
The prophets who uttered their predictions before Israel's captivit}', use the 
term specifically. Relative to the term Israel we may lay down this gen- 
eral rule : In Bible history the term includes the whole family of Jacob 
(Israel), till it was divided under Jeroboam and Rehoboam. During the 
274 years of their national separation, Israel generally refers to the ten 
tribes, Judah to the two tribes. From the captivity of the ten tribes (B. C. 
720) to the dispersion of the Jews under Titus, the term is applied to 
Judah and the Jews as the people of God. The term Israel is never ap- 
plied to Gentiles. It is a national term, as that of Turk, French or English. 
Conversion does not make an Israelite out of a Gentile. The earliest 
prophets, such as Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah, committed nothing to writ- 
ing, their predictions being principally of a temporal nature, are recorded 



HEBREW PHASE. 425 

in the historical books with their accomplishment. Elijah, of the reign of 
Ahab, was one of Israel's boldest prophets. He was raised up by Jehovah 
to rebuke the Sidonian idolatry of Israel (ten-tribed kingdom) under Ahab 
and Jezebel. Elisha and Michaiah had similar commissions. When the 
prophetic telescope took in a wider range, and brought to view events more 
distant, such predictions were recorded. The prophets, according to the 
time of their utterances, were arranged by Horn under three periods : 1. 
Before the Babylonian captivity, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Micah, 
Nahum, Zephaniah. This period covers the second books of Kings and 
Chronicles. 2. During the captivity, in part or in whole, Jeremiah, 
Habakkuk, Daniel, Obadiah, and Ezekiel. 3. After their return, Haggai, 
Zechariah, Malachi. This period will be found in the books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah. What do these prophets say of the ten tribes during their 26 
centuries of banishment? These predicted events belong to the sixth 
epoch of Hebrew history. The prophets that uttered their predictions 
before Israel's captivity were : Jonah, B. C. 856 to B. C. 784, under the 
reign of Jehu and of Jehoahaz ; Amos, B. C. 810 to B. C. 885, under the 
reigns of Joash and Jeroboam II. ; Hoseah, B. C. 725 to B. C. 625, under 
Jeroboam II. ; Isaiah, 810 to 696; Joel, B. C. 810 to B. C. 660; Micah, B. C. 
758 to B. C. 699. These prophets were principally of Judah. The chief 
prophets that sketch Israel's future were Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. Amos stands first on the list of the pro- 
phetic historians of the ten-tribed Israel. He was a prophet in the days of 
Jeroboam II., the thirteenth king of Israel, when that kingdom was far 
gone in idolatry. The mission of Amos seems to be confined to Israel be- 
fore its captivity. Still the range of his telescope takes in its dispersion, 
their sufferings by famine and by the sword (ix, 4), and their return and 
endless prosperity. " Behold, the eyes of the Lord God (are) upon the sin- 
ful kingdom (Israel — W.), and I will destroy it from off the face of the 
earth ; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the 
Lord. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among 
all nations. Like (as corn) is sifted iu a sieve, yet shall not the least grain 
fall upon the earth." We learn from these passages that Israel was to be 
scattered among all nations, suffer hunger and yet be protected by divine 
Providence, and finally be returned to their own land and live in great 
prosperity (ix. 11-15). Hosea was contemporary with Amos, yet con- 
tinued longer in the work of his mission, since he records more of the 
history of Israel in its 26 centuries of banishment from the land of its 
nativity. God's messages came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, 
Ahaz, (and) Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam II. 
the son of Joash, king of Israel, and continued about sixty years. God 
commands Hosea to take a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, 
"■ For the land hath committed great w^horedom, from the Lord." Hos. i. 2. 
Whether this act was literal or symbolic is not generally agreed ; it is cer- 
tain, however, that she and. her children were designed to illustrate the 
idolatrous character of the ten-tribed Israel, and God's intended deal- 
ings with that corrupt people. They were once His people as well as 



426 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Judah, He was married to them, but their gross idolatry divorced them 
for a time; but abandoning idolatry they are received again into 
favor. Hosea's prophetic glass takes in very little but his own peo- 
ple Israel, their idolatry, banishment, and return to favor and pros- 
perity in the distant era. Following Israel through ages of dispersion 
and sorrow he gives this remarkable epitome of their future history : 
"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and 
withou-t a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and with- 
out an ephod, and (without) teraphim. Afterward shall the children of 
Israel return and seek their Lord, and David (Messiah, son of David. — W.) 
their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days," 
(iii. 4. 5.) With this connect the following : " I will go (and) return to 
my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their 
affliction they will seek me early." (v. 15.) The Targum says " weyisht 
ammon limsheecha var dawid malkchon." " And they shall obey the Mes- 
siah, the son of David their king." (See Jer. xxx. 9, and Eze. xxxiv. 23, 
24). " And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, 
(even) my servant David ; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shep- 
herd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince 
among them ; I the Lord have spoken (it). On this " My servant David," 
the learned Bagster says, " David king of Israel had been dead upwards of 
400 years ; and from that time till now there never was a ruler of any kind 
in the Jewish nation of the name of David. By David, then, we must 
understand the Messiah, as the Jev\rs themselves acknowledge, so called 
because descended from him, and also as being the well beloved Son of the 
Father, as the name imports, and in whom all the promises made to David 
were fulfilled." The expression " many days," and " latter days," forbid its 
application (Hop. iii. 4, 5), to the return from captivity in Babylon : and, 
since there has not been any return of Israel, or the ten tribes, they must 
look to a future return. Hosea sees, therefore, their wanderings and troubles, 
and the glory that follows. 

The subject which we are now gathering from the prophets is the history 
of ten-tribed Israel while lost in their long banishment. We quote the his- 
tory of their union and prosperity under Messiah, to be traced hereafter 
because the history of their dispersion, and after glory are connected. Joel 
from B. C. 810 to B. C. 660, to the time of Pekah and Hoshea. The pro- 
phetic telescope of this prophet, sweeps over the landscape of Judah prin- 
cipally. Joel uses the term Israel only three times, once, where he may 
include the ten tribes. Once it denotes all the land, (iii. 2) ; once (iii. 16), 
he evidently refers to the 12 tribed kingdom the future reign of Messiah. 
No history of Israel in banishment. Passing along in Israel's history dur- 
ing its 26 centuries of banishment, we shall gather the remainder of its pro- 
phetic history from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah, giving 
extracts only that will illustrate the history of the ten tribes during their 
dispersion. 

Isaiah's prophetic history of the ten-tribed Israel, during their 26 cen- 
turies of exile Isaiah prophecied from B. C. 810 to B. C. 698, commencing 



HEBREW PHASE. 427 

about 90 years before Israel's captivity. He must have been familiar with 
Israel's idolatry, and somewhat acquainted with their lives in their early 
captivity. What Jehovah revealed to him of their history as wanderers, that 
he recorded. He was emphatically a prophet of Judah ; and, therefore, we 
need not feel disappointed if his history of Israel is somewhat meagre. In 
Is. viii. 17, it is said, "The Lord hideth His face from the house of Jacob" 
(Israel — W.). Casting them out of the land where he dwelt he is said to 
hide his face from them. "By another tongue will I speak unto this peo- 
ple." Is. xxviii., 2. They were not to be known by the name Israel, but 
the Jews were always to be known by their name and countenance. 
Is. iii. 9. The sketches of Isaiah and most of the other prophets will be 
understood more distinctly by dividing Israel's captivity into two periods. 
(1) the period of her divorcement from her legal husband, which extended 
over many centuries; (2) and the period of her re-betrothal, which covers 
the remaining part of her banishment. Isaiah sees Israel in both of these 
states, and also in a third position, (3) that of wedlock. Isaiah's prophetic 
telescope, in its vast field, took in Israel in her three distinct periods ; John 
in the isle of Patmos saw Israel and Judah in the last state. (See Rev. xiv. 
1, 4; also Rev. vii. 4-9.) It must be kept before the mind, that Isaiah's 
prophetic glass keeps Israel, Jew, and Gentile distinct. Though he uses 
Israel in its generic sense as "The God of Israel" still he nowhere con- 
founds Gentile and Israel. Should he use terms so loosely, "Gentile" 
would be a name that could be readily expunged. Israel, Jew 'Judah) 
and Gentile, are names of nationalities, family names. Conversion to 
Christ does not allow interchange of family names, though they can take 
a common name to indicate one common nature, such as " Christian." A 
person of any family nationality may by conversion become a Christian, 
but neither is his family or its name annihilated, he is still a Jew or a Gen- 
tile, Turk, Russian, Persian, Briton, Frenchmen, or an American. Take 
the following passage : " Blindness in part hath happened to Israel until 
the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Here " Israel " and " Gentile " 
include all the families of the earth. The fact that Israel (10 tribed) was 
to be lost, necessarily implies a change of family name. This feature is 
distinct in Isaiah's telescopic views. If they had called Israel in their 
period of captivity, the Gentiles would have followed them as readily as 
the Jews, since they would have been recognized every where by their orig- 
inal family name, Israel. According to Isaiah's prophetic history Israel 
was to be Scythians or wanderers for many years. Such a construction 
may be given to Is. xlix. 1, 8. (2) That Israel should become a powerful 
nation is taught in Is. xli. 12, and that by the favor of Jehovah, vs. 13-21. 
Not only a great but a Godly nation. Isaiah is denominated the evangeli- 
cal prophet, because he dwells more on Israel's future glories, than on her 
past tribulations. Of these, however, we shall write under another head. 
It will not be necessary to record all that Isaiah has stated relative to 
Israel, since other prophets have been commissioned to give that history 
in national symbols which are very expressive and readily understood. 

A few other passages we shall select from Isaiah, illustrative of Israel 



428 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

during her protracted captivity. Their conversion in an island home. 
"Keep silence before me, Islands." Is. xli. 1. " The Isles shall wait for 
His law." Is. xlii. 4. " Sing unto the Lord a new song, the Isles, and the 
inhabitants thereof." Is. 10. 12. " Listen, Isles, unto Me." Is. xlix. 1. 
" To the Islands will He repay, recompense." Vs. 18. These passages 
show the worship of Jehovah. These were not of heathen nations, since 
they long held to idolatry, nor to the Jews who are still bound by the 
Mosaic Ceremonial law. When Isaiah speaks of heathen nations he calls 
them Gentiles. Isaiah is sketching Israel's history under Christianity. 
Their wanderings are over and they have become a settled Christian people 
in the Islands of the West. " Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires 
(valleys), (even) the name of the Lord God of Israel in the Isles of the 
Sea." (Western Ocean— W.) Is. xxiv. 16. 'J So shall they. fear the name 
of the Lord from the West." Is. lix. 19. That the prophet here describes 
Israel will appear from vs. 20; that he does not mean the Jews is evident 
since they are converted in the land of Israel. See Zech. xii. and xiii. 
That the Gentiles are not intended, is seen from Ch. Ix. 3. "And the Gen- 
tiles shall come to Thy light." When Isaiah means Gentiles he calls them 
by that name, and not by the name of Israel or Judah. In vs. 11 it is said, 
" Therefore thy (Jerusalem) gates shall be open continually; they shall not 
be shut day nor night, that (men) (Israel — W.) may bring unto thee forces 
of the Gentiles and (that) their kings (maybe) brought; for the nation 
and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish; yea, (those) nations 
shall be utterly wasted." " The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto 
Thee." Vs. 5. Who brings the Gentiles? Not Judah, nor the Gentiles; 
Israel previously converted and formed into a mighty empire of the sea, 
carries them into the land now occupied by God's ancient people. Isaiah 
reveals another feature of Israel's captivity and prophetic history. It 
would appear from the reading of 2 Kin. xvii. 18., that every individual of 
the ten tribes went into the Assyrian captivity, for it says, therefore (in 
consequence of their practicing the sins of Jeroboam — W.) the Lord was 
very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight; there was 
none left but the tribe of Judah only," and yet Isaiah says (Ixvi. 19.) : 
"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape 
of them (Israel? — W.), unto the nations (to) Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, 
that draw the bow, (to) Tubal and Javan, (to) the isles afar off, that have 
not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they (who? — W.) 
shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your 
brethren (for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations upon horses, and 
in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts (cars), to 
my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring 
an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take 
of them for priests and Levites." Vs. 20. 21. These evidently extend into 
a part of their history, yet in the future. In Isaiah Ixv. the prophet de- 
scribes two distinct families, placing them in contrast. The one family is 
blessed, the other cursed, who are these families? Is either a Gentile 
family? Such is the usual interpretation. The one family is said to be 



HEBREW PHASE. 429 

composed of apostate Jews ; the other, of converted Gentiles — Christians. 
This view, in our opinion, is quite foreign from the revealed truth. Let us 
submit the chapter in question to a close examination. The part in ques- 
tion thus reads : " Thus saith the Lord. As the new wine is found in the 
cluster, and (one) saith. Destroy it not; for a blessing (is) in it; so will I 
do for my servants' sake that I may not destroy them all." Vs. 8. Here 
the cluster is not destroyed, because the new wine (a blessing) is in it. The 
ten-tribed Israel is the cluster and the righteous of Israel. Such as the 
seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal — the new wine. No 
Gentile, so far, is seen by the prophetic telescope. Israel, the seed of Jacob, 
alone appears. Vs. 9. "And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob (ten 
tribes — W.) and out of Judah (two tribes, Judah and Levi — W.) an in- 
heritor of my mountains (no Gentile — W.) ; and mine elect (of Israel and 
Judah— W.) shall inherit it (the promised land) and my servants (mine 
elect of ten-tribed Israel and two-tribed Judah — W.) shall dwell there." 
A learned author says : " Throughout this chapter, and indeed through- 
out the Scriptures, two classes of people are pointed out, to one of which 
belong its promises, and to the other its threatenings. This distinction 
should be carefully marked." So far our author is evidently correct : two 
seeds, one of God, the other of Satan. But when he heads the chapter : " The 
calling of the Gentiles," we beg the privilege of recording our dissent. The 
seed here spoken of is out of Jacob and Judah, and not from the (xentiles; 
a remnant of each of the two houses — Israel and Judah. Another part of 
each division remained wicked, they were the idolatrous seed ; the seed of 
the serpent. 

Vs. 10. "And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor 
a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people (of Israel and Judah — 
W.) that have sought me." The two names, Sharon and Achor, clearly 
indicate Palestine as the land here introduced, the land that God gave to 
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; and the land where God's oath requires them 
to dwell as a nation under the endless reign of His Son, the Messiah. No 
interpretation can be correct, which either spiritualizes this land or sur- 
renders it to the Gentiles. The other class of Israel and Judah are now 
addressed. 

Vs. 11. " But ye (are) they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy 
mountain (Mt. Zion — W., or Moriah the location of the temple), that 
prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offering unto 
that number." That "troop" (Gad). That "number" (Meni). These 
were false gods, worshiped by idolatrous Israel and Judah. Stars, the 
moon, or some other object of idolatrous devotion. With Israel and Judah, 
God had a class that did not serve other gods ; and Baal had a class, very 
numerous and zealous, that did serve other gods. Between these two classes 
in Israel (.ten-tribed) and Judah (two-tribed) lies the contrast, no Gentile 
being yet named. 

Vs. 12. " Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye (idolatrous 
Israel and Judah — W.) shall bow down to the slaughter : because when I 
called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil be- 



430 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

fore mine eyes, and did choose (that) wherein I delighted not." A clear 
description of idolatrous Israel and Judah. No one can mistake the ap- 
plication. 

Vs. 13. " Therefore thus saith the Lord God. Behold, my servants 
(mine elect seed of Israel and Judah, who shall inherit my land — W.) shall 
eat, but ye (idolatrous Israel and Judah — W.) shall be hungry ; behold, my 
servants (of Israel and Judah — W.) shall drink, but ye (of idolatrous Israel 
and Judah — W. shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye 
shall be ashamed." Vs. 14. " Behold, my servants (of Israel and Judah — 
W.) shall sing for joy of heart, but ye (idolatrous Israel and Judah — W.) 
shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit." 

Vs. 15. "And ye (idolatrous Israel and Judah — W.) shall leave your 
name for a curse (all called Jews — W.) unto my chosen ; for the Lord God 
shall slay thee (idolatrous Israel and Judah — W.) and call His servants (of 
Israel and Judah — W.) by another name." (Neither Israel nor Judah, for 
those names are held by idolatrous Israel and Judah — W.) nor yet Christian, 
for that would cover all Gentile converts, but by a new name that would 
include the good seed of Jacob. " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Gen. 
xxi. 12. Paul quotes this passage. Heb. xi. 18. " To whom it was said, 
That in Isaac shall thy seed be called." This name would be appropriate 
to designate the seed of Jacob. That name is fully discussed under the 
British Phase of the Eastern Question, to which we refer the reader. There 
it is shown that "Saxon" is the word Isaac, changed through a series of 
years. We have, so far, in this chapter associated Israel and Judah. Since 
Judah was not to be lost, but to be known by his countenance, and as he 
has always gone by the name of Jew, we infer that the new is applicable to 
Israel only. Such appears reasonable. 

Vs. 16. " That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless him- 
self in the God of truth ; and he who sweareth in the earth shall swear in 
the God of truth ; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because 
they are hid from mine eyes." 

Isaiah has many of those items in Israel's prophetic history, which 
more or less illustrates this period, but we shall close with only a few ad- 
ditional quotations. Isaiah usually keeps up a marked distinction between 
Israel and Judah, some of these distinctive features it is well to notice. 
There are not less then twenty distinctive features ; two or three, however, 
will be sufficient to name at present. (1) Israel was to become unknown 
by a change of name. (2) They were to increase into powerful nations. 
Manasseh, one tribe of Israel, was to become a great people. This was not 
accomplished before his captivity. (3) Ephraim, the royal tribe, should 
have a seed that should become a multitude of nations — the mother of 
nations. (5) One other feature is worthy of special notice : Israel was to 
be divorced from the law and its priesthood ; it was necessary that Judah 
should hold to the law and the prophets till the birth of Messiah, the 
promised seed, or his title to David's throne could not have been established. 
Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Their temporary captivity 
in Babylon was simply a short chastisement, necessary and corrective, but 



HEBREW PHASE. 431 

which was not to be so protracted as to destroy the chain of Judah's 
genealogy. Hence, on their return, the first thing was to see to their 
genealogical tables. These tables belonged to Judah. Israel had no use 
for such tables. A fact which we do well to keep in view as we progress ; 
for how could Israel have been lost if her genealogy had been kept. That 
Israel did not return in the close of the Babylonian captivity, we think, is 
very clear. By this we do not wish to be understood that no individual 
returned. Judah had his companions out of the other tribes, such as had 
intermarried with Judah, and those that were ardently attached to the 
temple service. These, however, were few, and called Judah's "Com- 
panions." It is said in Ezra ii. 64 : " The whole congregation together 
(was) forty and two thousand three hundred (and) three score" (42,360), 
and yet they were principally from Judah. Bagster has the following : 
" Though the sum total, both here and in Nehemiah, is equal, namely 42,- 
360, yet the particulars reckoned up only make 29,818 in Ezra, and 31,089 
in Nehemiah ; and we find that Nehemiah mentions 1,765 persons which 
are not in Ezra, and Ezra has 494 not mentioned in Nehemiah. This last 
circumstance, which seems to render all hope of reconciling them impos- 
sible. Atting thinks it is the very point by which they can be reconciled ; 
for, if we add Ezra's surplus to the sum in Nehemiah, and Nehemiah's 
surplus to the number in Ezra, they will both amount to 31,583, which, 
subtracted from 42,360, leaves a deficiency of 10,777, which are not named 
because they did not belong to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, or to the priests, 
but to the other Israelitish tribes." The 10,777 were composed of priests 
and of Levites, who had lost their genealogy, and a few Israelites of the ten 
tribes, who were companions of Judah and Benjamin. 

It now remains that we explain some expressions used by Ezra, which 
would seem to favor the idea of the return of ten-tribed Israel from Baby- 
lon. The passages from Ezra (ch. vi. 17; viii. 35; x. 5) will be placed 
before the reader and investigated. "And the children of Israel (two- 
tribed Israel — W.), the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the chil- 
dren of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God (second 
temple — W.) with joy. And offered at the dedication of the house of God 
a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin- 
offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the 
tribes of Israel." " (Also) the children of those that had been carried 
away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt-offerings unto 
the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy 
and seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering ; all (this was) a burnt- 
offering unto the Lord." "Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, 
the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this 
word. And they sware." These are the words of Ezra looking towards 
Israel's return. The terms "All Israel," and "Lord God of Israel," should 
be well understood in their Scripture applications. Jews were of Israel, as 
the generic term must include every species (Judah being one), and the 
species must include every individual, every Jew must be an Israelite, but 
every Israelite is not a Jew. We should keep in mind the origin of the 



432 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

term Israel. (1) Jacob is first called Israel. (2) Then his children are 
called the children of Israel, (Ephraim and Manasseh. Sons of Joseph, 
being adopted) : (3) Afterwards they are called Israel . (4) And God claim- 
ing them as His family, calls Himself the God, the Lord God of Israel. In 
Egypt, and in the wilderness under the Theocracy, and during the reign of 
David ; also of Solomon the term Israel usually included the 12 tribes (not 
always. Since the tribe of Ephraim drew many of the tribes into a combi- 
nation against Judah, long before their final separation). David, for seven 
years and one-half reigned in Hebron over two and one-half tribes — over 
Judah, and not over Israel. The spirit of separation had been growing for 
centuries. God is still called the God of Israel after the captivity of ten- 
tribed Israel. That term looks to their union on the mountains of Israel 
under the endless reign of Messiah. The Jews never understood Ezra to 
teach that they as a people returned : and Jacob's prediction of Ephraim 
and Manasseh requires them to be mighty nations. (1) The Jews have 
always been searching for their iQrt brethren of the ten tribes, which would 
not have been done, had they understood Ezra to have taught their return. 
(2) The language of Ezra does not convey such an idea. The true thought 
conveyed by Ezra, is presented by Ezekiel (xxxvii. 16) in a symbol : " Take 
the one stick, and write upon it. For (to represent — W.) Judah, and for 
the children of Israel his companions : then take another stick, and write 
upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and (for) all the house of Israel 
his companions." Ezra 31 years later, describes simply the first stick, but 
certainly sees not the stick of Ephraim (Israel) ; for Ephraim here stands 
for Israel. 

Examine the entire book of Ezra, and it will appear evident that he is 
describing those that returned from the captivity in Babylon, and such only 
of the ten tribes as had made choice of the kingdom of Judah (J udah and Ben- 
jamin) by reason of marriage or of their attachment to the temple service at 
Jerusalem, rather than to Baal service at Samaria. Ezra thus speaks (i, 5). 
"Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the 
priests, and the Levites, with all (them) whose spirit God had raised to go 
up to build the house of the Lord which (is) in Jerusalem." The decree 
of Cyrus had nothing to do with the ten-tribed kingdom, which at that 
time had been in captivity in Media 203 years. His decree and Isaiah's 
prediction (Is. xliv. 28, xlv. 1, 13) had to do with Babylon, not Media. 
Judah's captivity was to close in 70 years, and the Lord stirred up the 
spirit ol CyruS; king of Persia, saying. Build me a house in Jerusalem, that 
the Jews, taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, may return to their 
own land, city and worship. The Jews were of Israel, when the ten tribes 
were in a divorced state, as they were at this time. They had nothing to 
do as a people with the captivity in Babylon, that was peculiar to the king- 
dom of Judah. Josephus denies their return. "And thus did these men 
go, a certain and determinate number out of every family, above the age 
of twelve years, of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin." "So he (Ezra) read 
the epistle (of Xerxes) at Babylon to those Jews that were there ; but he 
kept the epistle itself, and sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation 



HEBREW PHASE, 433 

that were in Media. And when these Jews had understood what piety the 
king had towards God, and what kindness he had for Esdras (Ezra — W.), 
they were all greatly pleased ; nay, many of them took their effects with 
them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem ; 
but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country, 
wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the 
Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an 
immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers." Antiq. B. XI. 
Ch. v.. Sec. 2. The term, "All Israel," is sometimes generic, at other times 
specific. It is used generically in the wilderness, and principally under 
the reigns of David and Solomon. The twelve tribes are usually included 
during their union. In the following passages it is used specifically, 
"All Israel and Judah loved David." 1 Sam. xviii. 10. In 1 Kin. xii. 20, 
it is used twice to designate the ten tribes. It is used the same in vss. 16 
and 18. So also in 2. ch. xxx. 1, 5. In Ezra vi. 17 it is used as in 1 Kin. 
xviii. 31. "And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the 
tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom tlfe word of the Lord came, saying, 
Israel shall be thy name." (See vs. 19.) The twelve tribes did not serve 
Ahab. That number seems to look to all Israel when united under the 
triumphant reign of Messiah. Jeremiah will be examined relative to the 
history of the captive ten tribes. What is his testimony? Jeremiah was 
a prophet of Judah ; and, therefore, says but little of Israel, she being 
then in her protracted captivity. What he says is often by way of com- 
parison. Israel in consequence of her gross idolatry, had been divorced 
from Jehovah, and banished from the land of promise, yet Judah, knowing 
the fact, became more corrupt than her sister, and would have suffered a 
more severe and protracted banishment than that of Israel (who was to be 
taken into favor on repentance), if her mission had not been in Palestine, 
till she gave birth to the Messiah, while the mission of her sister Israel was 
far West, in the Isles of the sea. Hence backsliding Israel is removed to 
the land of her mission, where she was in time to be converted and become 
the mother of nations. Of Israel's state, in her captivity and in her wan- 
derings and growth, Jeremiah has but little to say. He distinctly shows 
that Israel will return. That return, however, belongs to another epoch 
of Hebrew history. That Israel would reform and be again received into 
favor the prophet declares in ch. iii. 12-20. God says, "And I will cast 
you (Judah) out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, 
(even) the whole seed of Ephraim." (Israel— W.) Jer, vi. 15. Jeremiah 
said of Israel in her captivity, " Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith 
the Lord ; for I (am) with thee ; for I will make a full end of all the nations 
whither I have driven thee : but I will not make a full end of thee, but 
correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished." 
Jer. xlvi, 28. God here promises to be with Israel (ten tribes). He will 
correct them reasonably for their idolatry, yet they shall outlive all other 
nations (Gentile monarchies). We here discern the kingdom of the Stone. 
He will not gather them wholly unpunished. Israel's punishment is for 
correction. Yet God's original chart of nations must finally be completed. 
28 



434 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Israel (Generic) composed of Judah and specific or ten tribed Israel must 
constitute the hub of Jehovah's great national wheel. This is God's great 
and unalternable, pivotal truth. His purposes must be accomplished. 

Ezekiel, on the epoch of the captivity of the ten tribes. The prophecies 
of Ezekiel, were uttered during Judah's captivity in Babylon B. C. 595, and 
34 years after Jeremiah had commenced his predictions and occupy about 
25 years. His topics are similar to those of Jeremiah, though expressed in 
quite different language. So far as he touches the history of the ten tribes 
then in their long captivity, it is our purpose now to write, reserving the 
remainder of his history for a more advanced Hebrew epoch. 

Ezekiel was a prophet of Judah. Still he does not loose sight of Israel. 
He began to prophecy in the fifth year of Zedekiah. Ezekiel uses the term 
Israel, generically, where he includes the twelve tribes, specifically where it 
applies to Judah, and also to Israel. We must always discriminate, or we 
fail to grasp his true prophetic meaning. The term, "God of Israel," is 
generic. Israel, during the co-existence of the two kingdoms, when followed 
by Judah, applied to the ten-tribed kingdom usually. After the captivity of 
the ten-tribed Israel, the kingdom of Judah has the name. We have 
generically the twelve-tribed Israel, the ten-tribed Israel and the two-tribed 
Israel. Israel, being primarily the name of Jacob, then the name of his 
children, of his family, of the Theocracy, of the twelve-tribed kingdom, of 
the ten-tribed kingdom, and of the two-tribed kingdom. It requires close 
investigation, to discern where it is used generically and where specifically, 
and if specifically, whether it points out the ten tribes or the two tribes. 
As an example take the following: (Ezekiel's commission) "Son of man, 
I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation, that hath 
rebelled against me : they and their fathers have transgressed against me, 
(even) unto this very day." Ez. ii. 3. Here they are called "Children of 
Israel," "House of Israel," ch. iii. 1, 4; 5, 7, 17. In ch. iv. 1-12, the siege 
of Jerusalem is portrayed, which clearly indicates that the prophet's mis- 
sion is to the two-tribed Israel. Since, however, there are two dates 390 
days, the number of days Ezekiel lies on his left side, and 40 days answer- 
ing to the days of his right side, and as the house of Israel is connected 
with the 390 days, vss. 4, 5, and Judah with the 40 days," vs. 6. Israel is 
in chapter iv. ten-tribed Israel; for there were 390 from the time of Jero- 
boam's setting up the calves in Dan and Bethel to the last gleaning of 
those tribes in the captivity of Zedekiah, vss. 9-13, very clearly delineate 
the ten-tribes. 

"All the house of Israel," (vs. 4) is used specifically since the type of 
the " hair" refers to Jerusalem (vs. 5), the capital of the two-tribed king- 
dom of Judah and Benjamin, and not to Samaria, the capital of ten-tribed 
Israel. At the time the prophet speaks, ten-tribed Israel had been in cap- 
tivity 145 years, and yet God here says what He would do unto Jerusalem's 
future at that time. 

Israel (vi. 1.) is used to represent Judah and Benjamin ; for ten-tribed 
Israel were all removed, of Judah a remnant (poorer class) were left. In ys, 
8 it is said, " yet will I leave a remnant." (See Jer. xliv. 28). So of the 



HEBREW PHASE. 435 

seventh chapter. Israel is applied to Judah and Benjamin (viii. 6-17). 
Israel is used specifically in ix. 8. The answer of God. Vs. 9 seems to in- 
clude both families, Israel and Judah. Simply the Israelitish companions 
of Judah are here intended for God's judgments on Jerusalem are pointed 
out. 

When Israel is applied to the land of promise, the terms are used gener- 
ically as "Land of Israel," " Border of Israel," In Eze. xi. 15-22, ten- 
tribed Israel is brought to view. '' Son of man, thy brethren, (even) thy 
brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel (ten-tribed) 
(are) they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said. Get you far 
from the Lord, unto us is the land given in possession. Therefore say, 
Thus saith the Lord God, Although I have cast them (ten-tribed Israel — 
W.) far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among 
the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary where they shall 
come. Therefore say, .Thus saith the Lord God, I will even gather you 
(Judah — W.) from the people, and assemble you (Judah — W.) out of 
the countries ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of 
Israel (generic — W). And they (ten-tribed Israel — W.) shall come thither, 
and they (ten-tribed Israel — W.) shall take away all the detestable things 
thereof, and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give 
them (ten-tribed Israel — W.) one heart, and I will put a new spirit 
within you (Judah — W.) ; and I will take the stony heart out of their 
(Israel and Judah — W.) flesh ; and will give them (Israel and Judah — 
W.) a heart of flesh ; that they (Israel and Judah — W.) may walk in 
statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them ; and they (Israel 
and Judah — W.) shall be my people, and I will be their God." Eze- 
kiel here gives us a very important historic item of ten-tribed Israel 
under their severe and prolonged captivity, " I will be to them as a little 
sanctuary in the countries where they shall come." Volumes are here writ- 
ten. A little home to these wandering exiles. Expatriated and wander- 
ing among strange and savage nations. I will take care of them as the 
oflending members of my own chosen family, I will be to them a little 
pleasant home as they move towards their abode in the great west and 
in their islands of the sea ; and when settled there I will bless and 
multiply them into great nations, and make them rulers of the world. We 
see in these exiles in their western sanctuaries the people of the second 
great European emigration ; the Scythians, Goths, or Germans, the one 
noted family whose history is none other than the ten-tribed Israel. 
Whence the Goths? the origin of their name. 

(1) When were they Scythians ? (2) When Goths ? (3) When Ger- 
mans ? These names denote their progress westward. In northern and 
western Asia they were called Scythians (wanderers), this name following 
them into s. e. Europe. 

(2) In Eastern Europe they were called Goths, denoting their religious 
cast. *' Gaw-thei," people of God. "Cossack," " Goi-sons of Saac (Isaac), 
sons of Isaac." "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Gen. xxi. 12. Ronu 
ix. 7. Heb. xi. 18. 



436 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

(3) In Northwestern Europe as they rushed down upon the Roman 
empire from the North they were denominated North-men, Norman, Ger- 
man, the most warlike of whom were the Saxons — Sax-sons — sons of Isaac. 
In all these localities God was their little sanctuary, watching over them 
while they were gradually progressing towards their " Island Homes " in the 
western seas, where they were to erect an empire to girdle the world. The 
promise made relative to Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. xlviii. 19), being 
never lost sight of by Jehovah. 

In Eze. xii. the terms " Israel," and " House of Israel," designate 
Judah, uttered in the sixth year of Zedekiah, and fulfilled in five years. (See 
vs. 13). The same is true of Eze. xiii., xiv. and xv., xvii., xviii. In Eze. 
XX. 1, " Israel " means Judah, but in vs. 5-27 it designates twelve tribed Is- 
rael. Vs. 27-40 Judah is intended, but in vs. 40 the future twelve-tribed 
Israel is brought to view. The same is true of vs. 42. Eze. xxi. 1-2, " Is- 
rael " is applied to the land which God gave to His Son, to Abraham, Isaac 
and Israel, and to Israel's 12 sons. In vs. 12 it refers to Judah ; also in vs. 
25 Zedekiah is called " Profane, wicked prince of Israel," who was king of 
Judah, B. C. 593, about 127 years after the captivity of ten-tribed Israel. 
From Zedekiah the overturnings continue till the reign of Messiah. The 
world's diadem (Messiah's diadem) by God's immutable purpose is given to 
four horns, beasts, or metals (in symbols), till the stone kingdom fills the 
earth. The Hebrew royalty is, therefore, a scene of continued changes and 
overturnings till He (Messiah) comes, whose is the right. Eze. xxii, 6, re- 
fers to Judah. So, also, does vs. 18. 

We are taught from Eze. xxiii., under the symbols of two lewd women, 
Aholah (ten-tribed Israel*, and Aholibah (two-tribed Israel), the history of 
the ten tribes under the royalty of Ephraim, and of the house of Judah, 
under the house of David. We learn that this division of feeling and in- 
terests dates back to their sojourn in Egypt, continued to grow in the wil- 
derness, ripened under the theocracy, existed under Saul, temporarily 
ceased under the reign of David and Solomon, but was fully consummated 
under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, never again to be joined till the reign of 
Messiah, the Son of David. 

" Israel," in Eze. xxiv. 21, denotes Judah, whose capital was Jerusa- 
lem. In chap. XXV. "Israel," when denoting the land, is generic; in vs. 14 
it means Judah. In chap, xxvii. 17 the term is specific, denoting the ter- 
ritory of the ten-tribed kingdom. In Eze. xxviii. 24, 25, 26, the term " Is- 
rael " is probably generic, including the future twelve tribes (see Jer. xxiii. 
6); so also in Eze. xxix. In Eze. xxxiii. 7, Israel ("House of Israel"), 
denotes Judah and Benjamin, since Ezekiel was a watchman to the house 
of Judah, the same is true of vs. 11, 20; in vss. 24 and 28 it is generic. In 
Eze. xxxiv. 2, " Israel " denotes Judah, since the shepherds spoken of were 
those that were then feeding Judah and Benjamin. In vs. 13 it is generic; 
so also in vs. 30. Eze. xxxv. 5, " Israel " stands for the twelve tribes ; so 
also in vss. 12 and 15 ; two people and two lands. 

Eze. xxxvi. This chapter is the commencement of a series of predic- 
tions relative to the land of Israel (land promised to Messiah, and through 



HEBREW PHASE. 437 

Him, to Abraham, Isaac and Israel), and its people to whom God prom- 
ised it as an endless possession. The land belonged to the twelve tribes, — 
to Israel generically. Through their gross idolatry, both houses, of Israel 
(the ten tribes and the two tribes) were banished from their land, ten- 
tribed Israel into their long captivity for correction, and to enter upon 
the work of their mission in the Isles of the distant West ; the two tribes, 
for chastisement only, then to return to their native mountains, during 
which their lands would be waste and desolate. The surrounding heathen 
boasted of God's failure. For God's honor and name He directs the 
prophet to enunciate from Him what the land and people should be. This 
chapter is a plain historical narrative of the future of the land and of 
its true and proper owners. Of their (12 tribes) former occupation of the 
land, God thus speaks : " Son of man, when the house (12 tribes) of Is- 
rael dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by 
their doings ; their (Israel and Judah' way before me was as the unclean- 
ness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured out my fury upon them 
(Israel, then Judah 133 years later), for the blood that they (Judah and 
Israel) had shed upon the land, and for their idols (wherewith) they had 
polluted it; and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dis- 
persed through the countries ; according to their way and according to their 
doings I judged them. And when they entered among the heathen, whither 
they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These 
(are) the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His (God's) 
land. But I had pity for my holy name, which the house, (all the house 
of Israel, vs. 10) of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither 
they went." Vss. 17-21. God then directs the prophet to address the 
land, mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys, shoot forth your branches, 
and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to 
come. Vs. 8. The prophet, then, in a plain narrative of their future, 
delineates their return, conversion, and the riches and populousness 
of the land, and of the honor paid to His name by the heathen. Both 
houses of Israel were involved in idolatry and blood, and both were 
banished for their corruptions. We do not find any separate history of ten- 
tribed Israel in this chapter. The history of both houses is given under 
the generic term Israel. No vision is found in this chapter. The land is 
personified. Jehovah, through the prophet, commands the land, in its 
mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers. When the God of nature orders any 
division of His works to unusual activity, He imparts the power ; He ener- 
gizes His own dictations. When the time comes for the events of this chap- 
ter to begin their accomplishment, those waste, uncultivated lands, so long 
resting under its sabbaths, will begin to move in its cavernous sepulchres. 
Copious showers will begin to pour their watery fountains of life from the 
heavens. Seeds, for centuries destitute of moisture, will rapidly germinate, 
and mountains, hills, plains, and valleys, will be clothed with a new and 
dense vegetation. The desert lands will bud and blossom like the rose. 
This chapter is a history of the new, the future genesis of the land of 
Israel. So certain as that land was emptied of its true and proper in- 



438 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

habitants, fell under the literal curse of the Almighty, so sure will the 
promised and predicted events of this chapter have their literal accom- 
plishments, ij# being rendered a fertile and suitable dwelling place for 
God's ancient people of the Hebrews. 

The following twelve chapters of Ezekiel describe events still future, 
and therefore belong to an advanced epoch of Hebrew history. We shall 
therefore reserve those chapters for the period of the restitution of Israel. 
4. Daniel's history of ten-tribed Israel, from their banishment to their 
return to the land of promise, B. C. 720, to their restitution. Daniel was a 
prophet of Judah, and uttered his predictions during the Babylonian cap- 
tivity. His prophesies are said (some of them at least) to date back of the 
70 years' captivity — such as the metallic image — and they extend through 
the captivity. That we may understand his ten-tribed history, it will be 
necessary to define his use of the term Israel. In Dan. 1. 3. the term was 
applied to Judah. Daniel was of that tribe. Vs. 6. The ten tribes had 
been in captivity over a century. "All Israel," ix. 7., refers to twelve-tribed 
Israel as they existed in two distinct nations, both of which were 
then in captivity : first, the ten-tribed Israel ; then the two-tribed Israel, 
Judah and Benjamin. The same is true of the use of the term in vss. 11.20. 
Daniel has not given us any literal history of the ten tribes during their 
protracted captivity. Under the symbols of four wild beasts, denoting the 
four Gentile universal monarchies, their history may be traced. Zechariah, 
in connection with Daniel, will aid us in tracing Israel's history. Zech- 
ariah sees four horns. "And I said unto the angel (Gabriel, the interpret- 
ing angel. — W.) that talked with me. What (be) these ? And he answered 
me. These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem." 
These four horns (symbols of national power) were the four great enemies 
of the Hebrew family; who, first, as the Assyrian empire, led into captivity 
the ten tribes. Afterwards, under the Babylonian empire, overthrew 
Jerusalem, and took the two tribes into servitude. In the histories of 
Assyria, Persia, and Greece we have the wanderings of ten-tribed Israel. 
Under the Roman empire, the fourth Gentile monarchy, we have the fall of 
Jerusalem and the final dispersion of Judah. The four carpenters, or 
laborers, are those agents that came to fray those Gentile powers. God 
has always accomplished His own purposes among the nations. For pun- 
ishment and for other purposes God allowed the Gentile nations to be 
the executors of His wrath. But when any one nation transcended the 
limits of its commission another was raised up to punish the first for cruelty 
towards His people. Thus it was with Assyria, Persia, Greece, and thus it 
will be with the Roman empire. In Dan. vii. we have the acts of the horns; 
also of the carpenters. The entire machinery is under the direct control of 
the Almighty. In Chap. viii. 13. Zechariah makes a distinction between 
Judah and Israel, saying. They were a curse among the heathen. In Chap. 
X. the house of ten-tribed Israel is called the house of Joseph, since his sons 
Ephraim and Manasseh were to be growing up into mighty nations. Vs. 9. 
I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember me in far coun- 
tries. Israel, in Chap. xi. 14, is applied to the ten tribes, between which and 



HEBREW PHASE. 439 

Judah existed a brotherhood, which was broken at the crucifixion. In 
Chap. xii. 1. Israel denotes the good out of Judah, and, perhaps, the good 
of Israel ; but these events to do not belong to ths present epoch, and must 
therefore be omitted for the present. This mourning belongs to Judah, since 
the ten-tribed Israel had nothing to do with the crucifixion of Messiah. 

In closing our prophetic history of the separate existence and wander- 
ings of the ten tribes it will be necessary to show how the term "Israel" 
was used by Christ and His Apostles. Let us read the New Testament. 
We have four inspired records of the sayings and doings of Jesus, those of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These we shall examine in the order 
named, and carefully note the use and meaning of the term " Israel," hoping 
thereby to gain further knowledge of that popular family name. Matthew 
11. 16. — "Out of thee (Bethlehem — W.) shall come a Governor, that shall 
rule my people Israel." Here the term Israel is evidently to be understood 
generically, for twelve-tribed (13) Israel, since Jesus, the Messiah, occupy- 
ing David's throne, will rule over as many as were under His sceptre. Of 
this there can be no reasonable doubt. The same is true when the land is 
named as in Vs. 20. C. viii. 10. Israel is here used generically also; for, 
whether the land or the people, it must apply to all the tribes, or to the 
land of promise. C. ix. 33. " It was never so seen in Israel " (land of Israel 
— W.; Term is here generically used. Never so seen in the land of promise. 
C. X. 5. 6. " These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, 
Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into (any) city of the Samaritans 
enter ye not. But go rather to the lost shepherd of the house of Israel.". 
Some doubts may arise as to the number of tribes here intended. One class 
of expositors confine the house of Israel to the ten tribes, while others say 
that Jesus intended the twelve tribes. The expression, "lost sheep," is ap- 
plicable to both Judah and ten-tribed Israel. " My people (Israel and 
Judah, Jer. 1. 4. — W.)hath been lost sheep, in the sense of going astray from 
God, their Father." Jer. 1. 6. See Ps. cxix. 176. — " Israel is a scattered 
sheep : the lions have driven him away ; first, the king of Assyria hath de- 
voured him; and last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken 
his bones." Vs. 17. 

Paul understood the Jews to be included in the term Israel : for he 
says, " Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said. It was necessary that 
the Word of God should first have been spoken to you : but seeing ye put 
it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn 
to the Gentiles." Acts xiii. 46. Paul was here among the Jews, as will 
appear from vss. 42, 43. Paul certainly understood the Gospel to be to the 
Jews; for he says, " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, 
and also to the Greek." Rom. i. 16. The commission was to begin at 
Jerusalem. Luke xxiv. 47. We are inclined to the opinion, that the ex- 
pression "lost sheep of the house of Israel " is to be generically understood, 
and therefore not confined to the ten-tribed Israel. The people excluded 
from this fir'^t mission were the pure and the mixed Gentiles. The Jews 
are not excluded; and they must, therefore, come under the term Israel. 



440 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

This view is certainly reasonable. Vs. 23. The term Israel is here generic 
since it includes the land. 

C. XV. 24. " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel." We regard " Israel " in this passage generic also. Jesus, during 
His first advent, confined His mission given to His disciples to the land of 
Israel; but His own work extended beyond the Hebrew family, thereby 
teaching that Gentiles would be subjects of His kingdom. The instances 
are : (1) a Samaritan woman ; (2) the servant of a Roman centurian ; (3) 
here a Syro-Phoenician woman, an outcast among the heathen. The fami- 
lies of Japheth and Ham are to participate in the blessings of the Gospel 
of the favored and mighty son of Shem. It was necessary that Jesus 
should teach this Gospel-lesson, that His mission as a Savior included the 
races of Hebrew and Greek. A Gospel that should call into one nationality 
the three races of men. Israel, vs. 31, is likewise generic. 

C. xix. 28. "And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye 
which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the son of man shall 
sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel." " The times of the restitution of all things." 
Acts iii. 21. 

Luke i. 16. "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the 
Lord their God." Israel here includes all the tribes. John the Baptist's 
mission was to the Jews (Judah). Vs. 32. " He shall be great, and shall be 
called the Son of the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto Him the 
.throne of His father David. Vs. 33. And He shall reign over the house 
of Jacob (Israel— W.) for ever: and of His kingdom there shall be no end." 
Here the house of Jacob, or Israel, includes all the tribes. Vs. 53. Israel 
is in this verse used in its primary sense. Vs. 80. "And was in the deserts 
till the day of His showing unto Israel," to Judah, or to the Jews, as is 
very evident. 

C. ii. 25. " Waiting for the consolation of Israel." Generic, the entire 
family. 

C. iii. 25. " Many widows were in Israel " (ten-tribed Israel). Elijah 
was the great prophet, sent to warn the ten tribes. 

C. xxiv. 21. " Which should have redeemed Israel."— Generic. The 
term is evidently used to represent the future twelve-tribed Israel. 

John i. 31. " That He should be made manifest to Israel." Judah is 
here signified by the term Israel, since the Jews principally occupied the 
land, Jerusalem, and the temple. Vs. 47. "An Israelite indeed, in whom 
is no guile." Jesus has here defined a true Israelite, and consequently true 
Israel the righteous of Jacob's family without regard to tribeship. No 
Gentile is here counted. The kingdom of Messiah will have all the pious 
of every age whether Hebrew or Gentile. Yet, if a pious Jew is not made 
a Gentile by virtue of his piety, neither will a Gentile, by a similar pro- 
cess, be converted into a Jew. Such a transformation is neither national, 
reasonable, nor Scriptural. Nathaniel was a pious Jew, and, consequently, 
was of the family of Israel. The Gentile has a distinct nationality, not 
lost by virtue of being good. There can be a good Turk, Russian, Pole, 



HEBREW PHASE. 441 

Austrian, Frenchman, Briton, or American. The name Christian does not 
annihilate family blood. Vs. 49. " Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the 
King of Israel." Generic term. • 

C. iii. 10. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of 
Israel, and knowest not these things ?" Israel is here used to denote Judah 
as the Jews were then organized. 

Acts i. 6. " Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
Israel?" Restore it under Thee, the Messiah, Son of David, as it was under 
David hiipQself. Generically used. It evidently includes all the tribes, 
since the Messiah is to rule over all the true Israel. In Is. i. 26 it is thus 
written, "I will restore thy (Jerusalem's — W.) judges, as at the first; and 
thy counsellors, as at the beginning; and after this thy name shall be 
called, The city of righteousness, the faithful metropolis." — Bishop Lowth. 

Dan vii. 27. "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
saints (holy ones — W.) of the Most High, whose kingdom (is) an everlast- 
ing kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." People of the 
holy ones are those that defend the holy ones, as in Dan. xii. 1, "And at 
that time (when the kingdom is about to be restored to Israel — W.) shall 
Michael stand up, the great prince (Miehael, Israel's prince, chap. x. 13. 21.) 
which standeth for the children of Thy people." The disciples, knowing 
that Messiah's kingdom was to be in the resurrection state, would now 
naturally conclude that the time had now come for Him to assume His 
great power, and commence His endless reign on the throne of His father 
David — twelve tribes. 

Acts ii. 22. Peter said, on the day of Pentecost, " Ye men of Israel," 
" Ye men of Judea." Land of Israel — generic. In chap. iv. 8, " Peter, 
filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them. Ye rulers of the people, and 
elders of Israel;" here the term is restricted to Judah, or the Jews. So also 
in vs. 10, also in vs. 28. In chap. v. 31, the term covers both houses of 
Israel. Chap. vii. 23, Israel is here generic. So likewise in vs. 37, 42. It 
is generic also in chap. x. 36. Paul uses Israel generically in chap. xiii. 16, 
17, 24. Israel, in chap. xxi. 28, applies to the Jews only. "Men of Israel, 
help." In chap, xxviii. 20, Israel is applied to twelve-tribed Israel. Ro- 
mans ix. 4-6. " Who (my kinsmen according to the flesh, vs. 3,) are 
Israelites: to whom (pertaineth) the adoption, and the glory, and the cov- 
enants, and the giving of the law, and the service (of God), and the prom- 
ises. Whose (are) the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
(came), who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the 
word of God hath taken none efiect. For they (are) not all Israel which 
are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, (are they) all 
children : (but), in Isaac shall thy seed be called, ' Children of God of all 
the tribes were the true Israel.' " Israel is, therefore, generic. Paul often 
uses the term Jew to denote all tlie tribes. " Even thus, whom he hath 
called, not of the Jews only (twelve tribes. — W.), but also of the Gentiles." 
Rom. ix. 24. His quotations from Hosea and Isaiah show that Jew and 
Israel mean the samo : that the seed of faith are made up of Jew and Gen- 



442 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tile; but Gentiles are not called Jews. Rom. x. 1. Israel is here used 
generically. In Rom. xi. 25, the term Israel, as also in vs. 26, 27, refers to 
the faithful of both houses of Israel. Paul's reasoning belongs, in part, to 
a more advanced period of Hebrew history, which we shall here omit. 
Paul says in Ph. iii.5 : " Of the stock of Israel, (of) the tribe of Benjamin." 
Benjamin was with Judah when the new kingdom was formed under Jero- 
boam. The term is therefore generic. 

In Rev. vii. 4, we have these words : (" And there were) a hundred 
(and) forty (and) four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." 
The term is here generic. In this list of tribes Dan and Ephraim are 
omitted, and the tribes of Joseph and Levi inserted. An author accounts 
for their omission, on the ground of their idolatry at this sealing time, 
which he makes in the days of Constantine the Great. There must be 
some reason for the omission, and we would suggest another thought, which 
is associated with the history of the ten tribes : If the tribe of Joseph 
excludes Ephraim as it does Manasseh, then may not Dan and Ephraim be 
left out of this early sealing, because they were, at that time, A. D. 323-7, 
beyond the bounds of Christendom ? 

We have now passed hastily through the New Testament in search of 
some historic sketches of the wanderings and localities of the ten tribes. 
Our information induces us to conclude that they formed no distinct com- 
munities within Asiatic territory; but they were in the dispersion, scattered 
here and there over the eastern world, but were forming into a nation in 
the western seas. One historic item, named in another part of our work, 
will be in place to be here inserted. It is found in ii. Esdras, xiii, 39-47: 
" And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude 
unto him ; those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out 
of their own land in the time of Osea, the king, whom Salmanasar the 
king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters 
(Euphrates.— W.) ; and so came they into another land. But they took 
this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the 
heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, 
that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their 
own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the 
river. For the Most High then shewed them signs, and held still the flood 
till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way 
to go, namely, of a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth 
(margin Ararath. Gen. viii. 4.). Then dwelt they there until the latter 
time ; and now when they shall begin to come, the Highest shall stay the 
springs of the stream again, that they may go through." The history of 
their wanderings and sufferings is outlined in the prophetic Scriptures, and 
especially in the historic sketches of the four Gentile monarchies. These 
we have already given. A few general remarks will conclude the sixth 
epoch of Hebrew History. 

Concluding remarks. — (1) Design and (2) Duration of their wandering 
are worthy of special attention, since they fully illustrate the Divine plan 
and purposes. God never acts without a purpose ; and that purpose is 



HEBREW PHASE. 443 

shaped into a visible plan or order of sequence. The creation is a visible 
embodiment of Jehovah's immutable purpose. The celestial movements 
are the visible cut and shaping of Divine thought. The earth was formed 
after a plan, in one of the departments of the universe. It had a previously 
fixed history to develop; that history will be developed in its minutest 
particulars. Its history, in the Divine purpose, and that acted out, are as 
two balls cast in the same mould. Its prophetic and profane histories are 
one; the written in advance of developed history; the other the record of 
past acts. It is this fixedness that enabled the prophets to write history in 
advance. See how perfectly the history of Cyrus was known to Isaiah 
(Is. xliv. and xlv.) one hundred and fifty years previous to his birth. How 
accurate is the symbolic history of the Gentile domination, exhibited in 
the metallic image of Dan. ii. 31-44. Hebrew history is delineated with the 
same immutable accuracy. Not the least prediction of the prophets relative 
to that people, will fail in its accomplishment. The seasons may run their 
course; day and night may fail; but what God has said of Israel His chosen, 
must be accomplished. That He has a purpose relative to that people, is 
distinctly enunciated in Deut. xxxii. 8-20. That He has a distinct location 
for that family is emphatically stated ; that that land is the central land of 
Messiah's empire, is equally clear; that all other families will have their 
location definitely determined by the location of this central family, cannot 
be disputed. Why then has the Hebrew family been so long away from 
its appointed seat? Why have Israel and Judah been sifted among the 
nations, and the world's nationalities, like a wheel without its hub ?_ To 
discover God's purpose in such a disarrangement is the problem we are now 
attempting to solve. The Hebrew nation Jehovah has ever claimed as His 
own family. From its birth to its settlement in the land of Canaan, God 
claimed Israel as His first-born, and exercised parental duties. Hear His 
language : '' The Lord's portion (is) His people : Jacob (Israel. — W.) is the 
lot (cord, or measuring line) of his inheritance. He found him in a desert 
land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; He led him about, He instructed 
him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings ; taketh them, bear- 
eth on her wings ; (so) the Lord alone did lead them, and (there was) no 
strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, 
that he might eat the increase of the fields ; and He made him suck honey 
out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and milk of 
sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with 
the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the 
grape." (Deut. xxxii. 9-15.) The prophecies abound in these tender ex- 
pressions. If God be unchangeable, that love must exist through endless 
ages; and His purpose in making them the central family in Messiah's 
kingdom must be finally accomplished. Their protracted banishment from 
their own destined land must have some deep purposes connected with it. 
(1) Discipline must have been one object; (2) the banishment of Idolatry 
from His sanctuary, another; (3) the instruction of the other families of the 
earth a third purpose ; (4) and the expansion of Joseph's seed (in Ephraim 



444 THE EASTJiKN QUKSTION, 

and Manasseh) into the " multitudinous seed," by a growth into great na- 
tionalities, a fourth. The prophecies concerning Joseph, Ephraim, and 
Manasseh could not have had their accomplishment in the land of Canaan. 
A glance at the elements of those predictions will satisfy the careful reader 
of the truth of our remark. 

(1) What is predicted of Joseph ? " Joseph (is) a fruitful bough, (even) 
a fruitful vine by a well ; (whose) branches run over the wall." Gen. xlix. 
22 ; also, vss. 23-27. This language is figurative, and poetical. The mean- 
ing is clear. Joseph, by his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, was to be- 
come so vast in numbers and temporal blessings, that their land would be 
too limited. Following the same idea, what is said of Ephraim and Ma- 
nasseh ? Let us read the language of Jacob : " Let them grow, (as fishes 
increase,) into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Gen. xlviii. 16. 
See vss. 19, 20. " He (Manasseh) shall become a people (nation. — W.) and 
he also shall become great ; but truly his younger brother shall be greater 
than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." '' They (the 
people. — W.) (are) the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they (are) the thou- 
sands of Manasseh." Deut. xxxiii. 17. We say that these predictions re- 
quire vastly more room for the theatre of their accomplishment than could 
possibly be furnished by the land of Israel. It was necessary, therefore, 
that the ten tribes, especially Ephraim and Manasseh, should be removed 
to some sparsely settled, or unoccupied territory, where they would have 
abundance of room to multiply nationalities. 

Such lands could only be found towards the setting sun, or what then 
seemed to be ocean islands. In these distant island homes they could in- 
crease like fishes. Asia and Africa, in the imperial belt, were populated. 
Europe, and the wilds of America afforded ample room. In Europe and 
on its adjacent islands colonies had long been planted from the Phoenician 
commerce. 

The building up of island empires had its origin in these early com- 
mercial dealings with the West. The ten tribes, especially Dan, and Asher, 
associated with the Phoenicians, and established a place of refuge for the 
other banished tribes of Israel. In these western homes, held to the cold 
north by the great imperial zone, they had suitable locations for the free 
development of a numerous and hardy people fully competent to the ex- 
ecution of God's immutable purposes relative to earth's nationalities under 
Messiah's empire. Who will pretend to say that the Almighty has failed 
in His plan of Human Nationality ? And if He has not failed, the time 
hastens when, by His own irresistible might, He will again establish His 
own favored people at the centre of earth's future, and endless, universal 
nationality. 

7. Judah from the fall of Israel to Babylonian captivity — 133 years. 
When Israel went into their long captivity Judah, though exceedingly 
idolatrous, was still permitted to remain in the sanctuary which they were 
daily filling with the pollutions of heathenism. Why was Judah spared? 
This problem we shall now proceed to investigate, since it is one of some 
intricacy, yet involving truths of the first magnitude. Seed, in Scripture, 



HEBREW PHASE. 445 

often denotes families or races of men. Three seeds, or races, have an in- 
teresting history. (1) the seed of the serpent as developed in the heathen 
world ; (2) the seed of^ the woman, denoting Christ and His family ; (3) 
seed of Joseph, or the multitudinous seed. The Gentiles and the seed of 
Joseph we have partly investigated ; it now remains that we sketch the 
origin and history of the One Seed which so intimately involves the house 
of Judah. From the fall the Bible narrative especially holds to the de- 
lineation of the character and acts of that family of Israel which were to 
be the custodians of God's land, house and worship, and which, in the ful- 
ness of the times, was to give birth to God's beloved Son, the Messiah. 
From that narrative we shall present a few items, hoping that they may 
interest the student of prophecy. 

The line of the one royal seed, which we now propose to follow, begins 
in Gen. iii. 15, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. " I 
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between fchy seed and 
her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." A line 
is traced to the deluge ; and from Noah to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; and 
of the sons of Jacob. Judah is selected as in the line from which Jesus, 
the true seed, was to be descended. The family of David was finally 
named, whose son, that should fill his throne during the endless ages, was 
to be Messiah, the Son of God Most High. From the birth of Judah that 
line is carefully guarded. In Egypt the family of Judah became powerful ; 
a rival, in authority, of the house of Joseph (stone of Israel and shepherd) 
formed of the families of Ephraim and Manasseh. During their 40 years 
of wandering in the wilderness Judah was the princely tribe, the leader in 
their marches. Between the families of Ephraim and Judah the multi- 
tudinous seed and the one seed existed jealousy. Ephraim and Manas- 
seh, though the adopted sons of Israel, still remembered the dignity of 
their father Joseph who was the savior of the entire family ; and, conse- 
quently, was the founder of Hebrew nationality. It was with difficulty 
that this rivalship was held within reasonable bounds, during their bond- 
age, in the wilderness and in their occupancy of Canaan. Under the last 
33 years of David's reign in Jerusalem the twelve tribes were held under 
one government and one system of devotion. This was true, also, under 
the reign of his son Solomon. Under the reign of Solomon's son, Reho- 
boam, the revolt of the ten tribes gave rise to the distinct and new king- 
dom of Israel, headed by Jeroboam. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was of 
the tribe of Ephraim. Hence, the dominating tribes in the two monarchies 
were Ephraim, who was to give birth to the multitudinous seed, and Judah, 
the father of the one seed ; and as this division was from God, the king- 
dom of Israel (ten-tribed Israel — W.) had a Divine origin. The time had 
come when the fathers of the many nations were to commence their dis- 
tinctive training preparatory to their education for their official work. 

The family of Jeroboam we have traced through its separate nation- 
ality, and through its centuries of wanderings to the vicinity of our times. 
Its nationality had, at least, five dynasties, while Judah still continued to 
be ruled by some one of the family of David, till the Messiah, the one seed, 



446 THE EASTEKN QUESTION, 

was born in Bethlehem of Judea, During Judah's 70 years captivity in 
Babylon, the royal line of David was genealogically preserved. That line 
we shall now attempt to trace as distinctly as the Bible and profane history 
will allow us. That history we divide into epochs. The seventh epoch 
extends to the Babylonian captivity. Let us trace their history through 
this epoch. 

The family of David was to be perpetuated through the endless ages 
of Messiah's domination. The genealogical line of that house had to be 
preserved till his Son, the true, promised seed, should appear. Its su- 
premacy terminated in Zedekiah, where the Gentile monarchies, symbol- 
ized by the metallic image of Dan. ii. 31-44, commence. Between Zede- 
kiah and Christ, the subordinate line of David is located. It is repre- 
sented by Ezekiel in xxi. 25-27. "And thou, profane, wicked prince of 
Israel (of the house of Judah — W.) whose day is come, when inquity 
(shall have) an end. Thus saith the Lord God : Remove the diadem 
and take off the crown ; this (shall) not (be) the same ; exalt (Him that 
is) low (Christ — W.), and abase (Him that is) high (Zedekiah — W). I 
will overturn, overturn, overturn it (under the Gentile monarchies — W.) 
and it shall be no more, until He come (Christ — W.) whose right it is; 
and I will give it (Him)." The subordinate character of these rulers appears 
in Gen. xlix. 10, which is correctly rendered as follows : " There shall be 
pri-nces and governors in Judah till Messiah comes, and unto Him shall be 
the gathering of the people." Judah shall have its subordinate, civil and 
judicial powers till Christ comes, the source of all law and order. One like 
unto Moses. 

Our seventh epoch covers Judah from Rehoboam to the close of the 
reign of Zedekiah. One point in this historic period must be kept con- 
stantly in view, God's paternal care of this tribe, of the land, of the City 
Jerusalem, the temple and the purity of its worship. No one can fail to 
discern the issues involved in the existence of this tribe. We shall note 
this period of Judah's history, and then trace the line of the one seed and 
its genealogy to the same captivity (Babylonian). The genealogy of that 
tribe has been continued for tlie special purpose of a guide to the true Mes- 
siah. That the reader may understand that idolatry was the chief sin of 
Judah and Israel, it is well to remark : (1) The land of Canaan was 
especially recognized as the land of Jehovah, His dwelling place on earth, 
and, therefore, His sanctuary. In that land nothing was allowed offensive 
to its Lord and owner. (2) To this end He had ordered the ejectment of 
the idolatrous Canaanites, and had introduced His own beloved family 
that He had raised up and educated for its citizens. To them He had given 
a code of laws, a religion, priesthood, and all necessary helps for a holy 
people. (3) Idolatry then was a sin, too insulting to be in any manner 
tolerated. " Thou shalt have no other gods before me," that is, in this, my 
LAND. Idolatry, therefore, was the most hated sin of the land. It was in- 
troducing idols into His own house and corrupting His own family. We 
shall see that every king that held to God's worship was prospered ; while 
those that went into idolatry were cursed. (4) Another remark will here 



HEBREW PHASE. , 447 

be appropriate, while God was so severe relative to the idolatry of the He- 
brews in the land of Canaan, He did not interfere with Gentile idolatry in 
other lands. He was educating the world's teachers in morals and religion ; 
and, during their pupilage, He wanted them kept free from all corrupting 
associations. Keep in view these thoughts, as you will find them the key 
to the proper understanding and appreciation of what follows. 

(1) Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned over Judah and in Jerusalem 
17 years. The chief sin of his reign was idolatry. For Jeroboam's idolatry 
there might be some apology, since a new religion and place of worship were 
necessary to hold his subjects true to his cause; but Rehoboam was not un- 
der such a religious pressure. God's land, temple, priesthood, and worship 
were in his possession. The experience of his father, Solomon, and of his 
grandfather, David, had taught him the value of this divinely-appointed 
institution, its land, city and temple. Yet, despite of all these God-given 
and God-sanctioned privileges, he sunk his nation into idolatry. 

(2) Abijam, his son, reigned in Jerusalem three years, walking in all 
the sins of his father. " Nevertheless, for David's sake, did the Lord, his 
God, give him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son after him, and to 
establish Jerusalem." 

(3) Asa, his son, was a righteous king, and, therefore, had a pro- 
tracted reign of 41 years. " He took away the Sodomites out of the land, 
and removed all the idols that his father had made, and deposed his 
mother for making an idol in a grove, destroying her idol." 

(4) Jehoshaphat, his son, did right like his father; reigning 25 years. 

(5) Jehoram, his son, reigned 8 years ; in partnership and alone. He 
was a wicked prince after the death of his father. " He walked in the way 
of the kings of Israel (10 tribes), as did the house of Ahab; for the daugh- 
ter of Ahab was his wife ; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet 
the Lord would not destroy Judah for David, His servant's sake, as He 
promised him to give him always a light (and) to his children. 

(6) Ahaziah, his son, was an idolater, and reigned only one year, B. C. 
884. He was punished for his idolatry as practiced in Israel. 

(7) Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, granddaughter of Omri, wife of Je- 
horam, king of Judah, and mother bf Ahaziah, introduced into Judah the 
worship of Baal. She put to death all the royal family of Judah except 
one infant named Joash, the youngest son of Ahaziah, saved by his aunt 
Jehosheba, the wife of Jehoiada, high priest, who educated and concealed 
him six years in the temple, during which time Athaliah reigned over 
Judah. A revolution placed Joash, of the house of Judah, on the throne, 
Athaliah did not worship in the temple (she worshiped Baal), which fact 
gave the high priest an opportunity to dethrone her. Her idolatry caused 
her to be deposed and put to death, 

(8) Joash, the son of Ahaziah, ascended the throne of Judah at the 
age of seven years. He reigned 40 years, from B. C. 878 to B. C. 838. The 
first 22 years of his reign were prosperous. Pure religion was restored and 
the temple repaired ; yet grove-worship was continued. After the death of 
the high priest, Jehoiada, the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth was revived, 



448 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, was put to death in the court of the Lord's 
house (Matt, xxiii. 35). That year his dominions were invaded by Hazael, 
King of Syria, who carried off a vast booty as the price of his departure. 
Soon after he was put to death by two of his servants. 

(9) Amaziah, his son, ascended the throne of Judah (David — W.) on 
the death of his father, and reigned B. C. 837-809 — 27 years. He is called a 
righteous king, "And he did (that which was) right in the sight of the 
Lord; yet not like David, his father; he did according to all things as 
Joash, his father, did. Howbeit the high places were not taken down 
(away) ; as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high 
places." He made war on the Edomites, towards whom much cruelty was 
exercised. He was defeated by the king of Israel and taken prisoner. In 
the 29th year of his reign he was slain. Part of his treasures at Jerusalem 
was carried to Samaria. 

(10) Azariah (Uzziah, 2 Kin. xv. 32. 34) his son, reigned from B. C. 
808-9 to B. C. 756-7—52 years. "And he (did that which was) right in 
the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, 
save that the high places were not removed : the people sacrificed and 
burnt incense still on the high places. He is associated with the prophet 
Zechariah, His attempting to burn incense, near the close of his reign, 
was his only public blemish for which he was punished with the leprosy, 
which clung to him unto tho day of his death. During the most of his 
long reign he was a God-fearing king. Uzziah made war on the Edomites 
and the Philistines, improved the temple, was a patron of agriculture and 
strengthened the walls of Jerusalem. His kingdom was as prosperous as 
in the days of Solomon. During his reign there was a terrible earthquake 
(Zech. xiv. 5). How severely did the Almighty guard the order of His 
worship. Its priesthood was kept distinct from its regal functions. The 
law had to be strictly carried out, even by the Savior. When here he was 
simply a prophet, when he entered the most holy (heaven) he was officially 
a priest only. When he returns to subdue his enemies he will be officially 
a king. These offices are distinct, having each its time and place of execu- 
tion. 

(11) Jotham, his son, took the throne of his father Uzziah, while he 
was a leper. He filled his father's office till his (Uzziah's) death, when he 
ascended the throne, reigning 16 years, from B. C. 758. "He did right in 
the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did," not, 
however, going into the temple. "So Jotham became mighty, because he 
prepared his ways before the Lord's, his God." 

(12) Ahaz, his son, came to the throne of his father Jotham, at the 
age of twenty years, and reigned sixteen years. He was an idolatrous 
king, walking in the ways of the kings of Israel. Ahaz took the silver 
and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of 
the king's house, and sent (it for) a present to the king of Assyria. Under 
Ahaz, the kings of Israel and Syria entered the territory of Judah and laid 
siege to Jerusalem. Such was the spirit of devotion in the armies of Ahaz, 
instigated by Isaiah, that the confederate powers failed in their attempt. 



HEBREW PHASE. 449 

Judah's cup was not yet full. The allied kings, however, did great damage 
to Judah. Ahaz called the king of Assyria to his defence. This imprudent 
step was the cause of his ruin. It exposed the riches and weakness of his 
kingdom, and led the nation into the corruptions of idolatry. Visiting the 
Assyrian king at Damascus he saw a heathen altar so pleasing to his taste^ 
that he sent a pattern of it to the high priest at Jerusalem, with instruc- 
tions to have one made like it, and placed in the temple, God's altar heing: 
removed. The temple of Jehovah was converted into a house for idolatrous; 
worship. He made images for Baalim: he burnt incense in the valley of 
the son of Hinnom (Gehena), and burnt his children in the fire, after the 
abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the chil- 
dren of Israel. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, 
and on the hills, and under every green tree. What an insult to him who 
called himself the "God of Israel," filling his land, city and temple with 
idols, to the total neglect of his own pure devotion. "And in the time of 
his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord : this (is that) king 
Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him : 
and he said, Because the gods of the king of Syria help them, (therefore) 
will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin 
of him and of all Israel (Judah). And Ahaz gathered together the vessels 
of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord ; and 
he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem, and in every, several city 
of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and pro- 
voked to anger the Lord God of his fathers." 

(13) Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, succeeds his father to the throne of 
Judah B. C. 726. He, unlike his father, went about to re-establish the wor- 
ship of the God of Israel, and to put idolatry out of the kingdom. The 
high places were not spared. The Lord God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob was again seated on his throne in Jerusalem, and the temple ser- 
vice shone forth in all its original purity and splendor. 

Hezekiah was one of the three most perfect kings of Judah. " He 
trusted in the Lord God of Israel ; so that after him was none like him 
among all the kings of Judah, nor (any) that were before him. For he 
clave to the Lord, (and) departed not from following Him, but kept His 
commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And was with him,, 
(and) he prospered whithersoever he went forth, 2 Kin. xviii. 5. 6. 7. 
Hezekiah's prayers took hold of the arm of Jehovah. He sent His angel, 
who, in one night, destroyed 185,000 men. His life was prolonged fifteen 
years. He became very wealthy, " He made himself treasuries for silver, 
and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for 
all manner of pleasant jewels; store-houses also for the increase of corn, 
and wine, and oil ; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks. 
Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in 
abundance : for God had given him substance very much. He reigned 29 
years and died B. C. 697. The fact of God's proprietorship of that land and 
people, was distinct under Hezekiah's reign. 

(14) Manasseh, his son, ascended the throne of David at the age of 
29 



450 THE EASTERN QUESTION 

twelve years. Destitute of age and experience he let the fountains of 
depravity gush forth without any restraint. He did (that which was) evil 
in the sight of the Lord. Manasseh was born three years after his father's 
life had been extended. He was perhaps, an only child, and allowed to 
have his way — '' a pet." His name Manasseh (the only one so named) 
originated in a fond dream of his father, to unite the ten captive tribes 
again with Judah. He did gain a few of the tribes of Ephraim and 
Manasseh. To conciliate Manasseh, he called his son by that name. The 
first work of the young king was to overthrow the religion of his father. 
" And he did after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast 
out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places, 
which Hezekiah his father had destroyed : and he reared up altars for 
Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel : and worshiped all the 
host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the 
Lord, of which the Lord said. In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he 
built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the 
Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, 
and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards; he 
wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke (Him) to 
anger. And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the 
house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, in this 
house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, 
will I put my name forever : Neither will I make the feet of Israel move 
any more out of the land which I gave their fathers : only if they will 
observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according 
to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they heark- 
ened not : and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations 
whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel." Thus did Manas- 
seh. Instead of accomplishing his father's fond hope, relative to the union 
of the twelve tribes under the standard of Jehovah, by doing more wick- 
edly than even the Amorites, he caused Judah so to sin, that God resolved 
to bring on Judah and Jerusalem such terrible judgments, that whosoever 
heareth of them, both his ears shall tingle. His provocations continued 
more or less through a long reign fifty-five years. His idolatrous acts 
hastened the captivity of Judah. God would not suffer His own sanctuary 
to be thus polluted by the insulting idolatry of His own family ; but He 
resolved to allow their speedy deportation into Babylon. 

(15) Amon, his son, ascended the throne of Judah with all the idola- 
trous ideas and practices of his father ; but his reign was limited to two 
years, he being put to death by his servants. 

(16) Josiah succeeded his father Amon at the tender age of eight years. 
He occupied the throne of Judah 31 years. His reign was good, and di- 
rectly the reverse of the reigns of his father Amon and his grandfather 
Manasseh, for he did (that which was) right in the sight of the Lord and 
walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the 
right hand, or to the left. His first act was to repair the house of the Lord, 
Solomon's temple. This work being finished, idolatry was overthrown, 



HEBREW PHASE. 451 

and the true worship again instituted. Under Josiah the book of the law 
was found and again publicly read. Huldah the prophetess, who dwelt in 
the College in Jerusalem, was consulted relative to the national destiny. 
She thus speaks, " Because they (rulers of Judah and Jerusalem) have for- 
saken me (Jehovah), and have burned incense unto other gods, that they 
might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands ; therefore 
my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. 
His imprudent attack of the army of Pharaoh-nechoh at Megiddo, caused 
his death in the midst of his national reforms and extraordinary pros- 
perity. 

(17) Jehoiakim, his son, ascended the throne of Judah at the age of 
twenty-five years, and reigned eleven years. He served the king of Baby- 
lon three years and rebelled. As a wicked prince, the Lord sent against 
him bands of the Chaldees and Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites. These 
calamities came upon Judah to remove them out of His (God's) sight for 
the sins of Manasseh according to all that he did. And also for the inno- 
cent blood that he shed ; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which 
the Lord would not pardon. 

(18) Jehoiachin, his son, succeeded his father at the age of eighteen 
years, and reigned in Jerusalem three months. He was a wicked king, fol- 
lowing the idolatrous practices of his father. In the eighth year of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's reign he sent an army and besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiachin 
soon made an unconditional surrender ; marching out with his servants, 
captains, officers, and the queen-mother, he gave himselfup, and was car- 
ried to Babylon, where he was closely confined thirty-six years, till the 
death of Nebuchadnezzar. He was liberated from prison life and placed 
among his most honored captive kings by Evil-Merodach, son of Nebu- 
chadnezzar. 

(19) Zedekiah, son of Josiah. His name was Mattaniah, but it was 
changed to Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. He was the last king of Judah 
and Jerusalem. His first act of rebellion was an alliance with Egypt. 
This act was resented by Nebuchadnezzar's sending an army to ravage 
Judea. He laid siege to Jerusalem, suspending the siege to give battle to 
the king of Egypt. During this absence the Jews again rebelled. In 
Zedekiah's ninth year Jerusalem was again under her final Babylonian 
siege. 

Jerusalem fell after a siege of sixteen terrible months. Zedekiah with 
his family and a remnant of his army stole out of the city in the dead of 
night. As the Chaldean army entered the city at one side, the king and 
his wives left it by an opposite gate. Near Jericho they were overtaken, 
and carried to Nebuchadnezzar, who was at Riblah at the upper end of the 
valley of Lebanon. Zedekiah's eyes were put out and his sons were all 
put to death by Nebuchadnezzar. He was put in brazen chains, and finally 
taken to Babylon where he died. This terminated Zedekiah, and with him 
the Jewish monarchy. God had suffered the existence of idolatry in his 
family as long as He would allow it. His sanctuary had been polluted for 
centuries, and His own chosen people were worse in their religious practice, 



452 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

than the Canaanites whom he had expelled. He had said of Canaan, "The 
land is mine," and because of its corrupt, idolatrous inhabitants I have 
emptied the land, and in their stead, I have planted my own family, the 
Hebrews. Ten tribes so far imitated the idolatrous practices of the heathen 
that more than a century ago, "I removed them from this my sanctuary. 
For the sake of David, my servant, I spared Judah till his corrupt family 
obliges me to banish him also. The land must now have rest, which it had 
not under my children." Thus speaks Jehovah, as He lifts the crown 
(diadem) from the head of Zedekiah, the royal Jew, and places it upon the 
head of Nebuchadnezzar, the royal Gentile, in which line it was to continue 
through four Gentile families (Assyrians, Medo-Persians, Greco-Macedonians 
and Romano-Germans, Symbolized by the metallic image of Dan. ii. and 
the four beasts of Daniel vii. and the four horns of Zechariah i. 19.) till it is 
given to him (Christ) whose right it is. 

It is well to pause here at the close of the Hebrew's seventh epoch, and 
mark the state of the land (God's sanctuary), His family, the Hebrews, and 
God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, and decide if Jehovah 
has made a great national failure! The popular interpretation convicts 
the deity of a signal failure. God started out, after the flood, with a pur- 
pose and a plan. (1) His purpose was to people the earth by the three 
sons of Noah — Shem, Ham and Japhet — by use of the following plan, viz.: 
to place one family in a land which should occupy it as the great national 
centre, which land should be his own special dwelling-place on earth. 
About this central family (the hub of his national wheel) were to be 
located the other families of Shem, Ham and Japheth, as the spokes and 
rim of His national wheel. (Deut. xxxii. 8. 9. 10.) whose numbers and 
position were to be measured by the number of this central family. And 
the children of Israel were chosen to be that central family (the hub of the 
national wheel). To that end He calls out Abraham : then named Isaac, 
afterwards designated Jacob : changed his name to Israel and made him His 
first-born, chief born, central born of the nations that were to form the 
integral parts of the terrestrial empire of His Son Messiah. He removed 
the family of Jacob (Israel) into Egypt, which was at that time under the 
vice royalty of his son Joseph. Here Israel was to grow up into a great 
nation and then remove into their central land (Canaan). 

God Himself became^, their Deliverer, Instructor and Guide. During 
forty years of wilderness life He was their teacher, civil, social and relig- 
ious. He educated, fed and clothed them as a parent provides for his 
family. Under Joshua, a type of His Son, He settles the tribes in their 
estates with the remnants of the land's former inhabitants to be thorns to 
His. chosen family in consequence of their disobedience. He gave them 
judges about 450 years, this period closing with Samuel the prophet. Dur- 
ing these four and one-half centuries, God's discipline was sometimes ex- 
ceedingly severe owing to their affiliation with the idolatrous Canaanites. 
They were alternately their subjects and rulers. Jehovah was, however, 
their king, guiding their tabernacle services regulating their feasts, insti- 
tutions, laws, manners, and social pursuits. This was the special era of the 



HEBREW PHASE. 453 

Theocracy. The sons of Samuel being reprobate, and wholly incompetent 
to succeed their father in the great national judgeship, the people desired a 
king. The demand was exceedingly offensive to Samuel till God told him 
that the act was aimed at his domination since the people wanted a visible 
king to go in and out before them and fight their battles as the kings of 
other nations, ignoring the events of their past history in Egypt, in the 
wilderness, and in Canaan under Joshua who subdued seven nations. They 
had been so deeply corrupted by Canaanitish idolatry that the memory of 
God's parental dealings had sunk into oblivion. 

In His anger God gave them a king, Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the 
tribe of Benjamin, who reigned over them about forty years. Saul was 
unworthy of being God's viceroy over such a family as that of the He- 
brews. By virtue of His supreme authority, as Israel's invisible Governor, 
Saul was deposed. His family became extinct, and David ascended the 
visible throne of God's special people. God promised to perpetuate the 
family of David, by giving him an heir whose reign should be universal 
and endless, the seed which was to destroy the seed of Satan — the seed 
promised to Abraham which Paul said is Christ (Messiah). David's family 
chain extending onward to the one seed, was therefore, to be contined till 3 
He comes, whose is the right. 

Under David was formed the twelve-tribed kingdom, which was well 
organized, and, with few exceptions, ably, and religiously governed and it 
was prospered. 

After forty years, Solomon succeeded to the throne of David. Under 
Solomon the Hebrew commonwealth reached the summit of its earthly 
grandeur. David and Solomon had each ascribed their prosperity to 
Jehovah. Solomon asked God for wisdom to govern so great a people, and 
God bestowed both wisdom and riches. His name was known among all 
nations. During the administration of David and Solomon, the Lord God 
of the Hebrews dwelt in a peculiar manner in Canaan, the central land of 
the earth, was visibly worshiped in His tabernacle, His wilderness house, 
and in His temple reared by His son Solomon. That temple was God's 
only house among all the nations. It was a model of the tabernacle (twice 
its size), which was a model of the celestial tabernacle, the model of the 
universe. In its most holy place, between the cherubim, was the cloud, 
the symbol of God's visible presence. In such a land, in such a temple, 
among such a people, God had taken up His visible abode as a Father 
among His beloved children. A worship so divine, so infinitely removed 
from the heathen idolatry, should have commanded the entire affection of 
His people. God's sanctuary (land of Canaan) which He had selected as 
the central land, the hub of the great national wheel of His Son Messiah, 
was to be a pure land, a land destitute of idols and idol-worshipers, a land 
where no object nor act offensive to its Maker and Governor should ever be 
allowed to corrupt the morals of His children. To that end the Canaanites 
were expatriated, and the land reserved as pure for the dwelling-place of 
Hie own "first born." To this end was the first commandment given, 
"Thou shalt not have any other gods before me (in my land)." The idola- 



454 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

trous practices of the heathen affected the morals of His family from the 
day they entered the land, so infinitely below the exalted character of the 
Deity did man sink, that idolatry became the natural element in which He 
" lived and moved, and had His being." The character of the Jehovah was 
so bright and pure, that the sight was painful to their vision. The wor- 
ship of Baal suited their vitiated tastes better than the worship of God and 
they fell down before the image of Baal, Ashtaroth, and worshiped the 
creature rather than the Creator. Solomon was corrupted by his heathen 
wives and concubines. So far away from God did he wander, that it was 
declared that under his son the kingdom should be rent : not under his 
reign because of Jehovah's oath to David. How insulting to the " God of 
Israel " were the closing years of Solomon's reign. What an infinite dis- 
tance between Solomon of the dedication, and Solomon before the image of 
Baal ! ! God's sanctuary prostituted and polluted by the very worship that 
had caused the banishment of its ancient inhabitants. And that too by 
His own family, which had cost Him so much labor and care to educate 
for holier purposes. 

After the days of Solomon, the chosen people of God are divided and 
for centuries are allowed to occupy God's chosen, but now polluted sanc- 
tuary. His land, temple, priesthood, and worship dishonored by the gross 
idolatry of His own Hebrew family. Even the temple itself, where Jeho- 
vah saw fit to place His name and to show His visible presence, filled with 
idols ! 

God was long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. The ten- 
tribed kingdom continued from B. C. 975 to B. C. 721, 254 years. Their 
idolatry was their great national sin. When the kingdom was rent under 
Eehoboam, the temple worship continued. Jeroboam, fearing that the 
tribes going up to Jerusalem to worship would abandon him and his king- 
dom, resolved to establish a new religion. At the two sanctuaries, at Dan 
and Bethel, were placed golden images of the Egyptian Mnevis, the sacred 
calf of Heliopolis, with the address "Behold thy God which brought thee 
Tip out of the land of Egypt." This worship and the sanctuaries continued 
till the end of the northern kingdom. Such an insult to Jehovah was too 
great to allow the nation's long duration. After existing 254 years they 
went into the captivity fro n\ which they have never been redeemed. Judah 
was allowed to occupy the land 134 years longer, when, for the same con- 
tinued provocations, they were expatriated in Babylon, where they con- 
tinued seventy years in that city and through provinces of the empire. 

In 2 Chr. xxxvi. 14. 22 we have the cause of this captivity fully stated. 
" Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very 
much after all the abominations of the heathen ; and polluted the house of 
the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of 
their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and send- 
ing: because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place, 
but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and mis- 
used His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, 
till (there was) no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of 



HEBREW PHASE. 455 

the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of 
their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man, or maiden, old 
man, or him that stooped for age ; He gave (them) all into his hand. And 
all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of 
the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes ; 
all (these) he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and 
brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with 
fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof And them that had 
escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon ; where they were ser- 
vants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia : To 
fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had 
enjoyed her sabbaths: (for) as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to 
fulfill three score and ten years." 

JUDAH's seventy years of captivity in BABYLON. 

In commencing the eighth epoch of Hebrew history let us glance at the 
state of God's purpose and plan relative to that family. Over 100 years of 
their remarkable history were accomplished when they entered the great 
empire as its humble captives. Why was this captivity brought upon 
Judah ? Let Jehovah Himself furnish the answer. In Lev. xxvi. God has 
stated the penalty of Israel's violation of the laws given for their govern- 
ment. Those laws, relative to the people and the land, God declares what 
He will do and the results, ''I will scatter you among the heathen, and will 
draw out a sword after you ; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities 
waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, 
and (ye) be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy 
their sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not 
rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it." Vss. 33-36. Their punish- 
ment among the heathen is then described, "And upon them that are left 
(alive) of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their 
enemies : and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them ; and they shall 
flee, as fleeing from a sword ; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And 
they shall fall one upon another, as it were, before a sword, when none pur- 
sueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye 
shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you 
up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your 
enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine 
away with them." Vss. 36-39. Jehovah then shows that their punislj- 
ment is disciplinary and not final, "If they shall confess their iniquity, and 
the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass, which they trespassed 
against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me ; and (that) I 
also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land 
of their enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they 
then accept of the punishment of their iniquities, then will I remember my 
covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my cove- 
nant with Abraham will I remember: and I will remember the land. The 



456 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth 
desolate without them : and they shall accept the punishment of their in- 
iquity, because even because they dispised my judgments, and because their 
souls abhorred my statutes." Vss. 40-43. Jehovah then declares what He 
will do for them, ''And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their 
enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them 
utterly, and to break my covenant with them : for I (am) the Lord their 
God. But I will, for their sakes, remember the covenant of their ancestors, 
whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I 
might be their God : I (am) the Lord." Vss. 44-46. 

The causes and peculiar features of the 70 years' banishment, and its 
special Divine intent, are distinctly narrated in 2 Chr. xxxvi. 14-22, "More- 
over, all the chiefs of the priests and the people transgressed very much 
after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the 
Lord, which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their 
fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending, be- 
cause He had compassion on His people. But they mocked the messengers 
of God and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath 
of the Lord arose against His people, till (there was) no remedy. Therefore 
He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young m6n 
with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on 
young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age ; He gave them 
all into his hands. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, 
and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to 
Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of 
Jerusalem, and burnt all the places thereof with fire, and destroyed all the 
goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried 
he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until 
the reign of the kingdom of Persia : to fulfill the word of the Lord by the 
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths ; for as long as 
she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three-score and ten years." 

Such was the Divine penalty for transgressing Moses' laws and for pol- 
luting the land with idols. Be it remembered that the worship of idols in 
God's own land, and in His own sanctuary, was an insult of the first mag- 
nitude. 

What design had Jehovah in this second captivity? It was one of 
chastisement and of purification. It was inflicted upon His covenant people, 
the Jews, as a penalty for the violation of His laws and statutes, and for the 
purifying His people and land from idolatry. God punishes to amend and 
purify. The covenant family (the Hebrews) had a metallic base mixed 
with much dross. He knew the precise degree of heat required to drive 
away the dross without tarnishing the silver and gold, and how much 
fuller's soap necessary was to cleanse their hearts from the love of idols. 
God is the great refiner and purifier. Mai. iii. 3. 4. 

The case of the covenant people was unlike that of the heathen. With 
other Tamilies He had no covenant to keep, and could therefore extermi- 
nate them at pleasure. Not so with the Hebrews of the race of Isaac, 



HEBREW PHASE. 457 

which involves Jehovah's oath to the three patriarchs. What says God 
relative to that oath? which (covenant) He made with Abraham, and 
His oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, (and) 
to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, "Untothpe will I give the land 
of Canaan, the lot (cord or measuring line) of your inheritance." Ps. cv. 
8-10. " He hath remembered His covenant, the word (which) He com- 
manded to a thousand generations." (See Gen. xii. 6. 7., xiii. 14, xvii. 2, 
xxvi. 3, xxviii. 13, 14, 15). In the time of David, God's (oath) promise is 
narrowed down to a single family. "And when thy (David's) days be ful- 
filled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after 
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his king- 
dom. 2. Sam. vii. 12. David said to Solomon, "That the Lord may con- 
tinue His word which He spake concerning me, saying. If thy children take 
heed to their way to walk before Me in truth, with all their heart and with 
all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of 
Israel." 1 Kin. ii. 4. "My mercy will I keep for him (David — W.) for ever 
more, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I 
make (to endure) forever, and his throne as the days of heaven." Ps. Ixxix. 
28. 29. See vs. 36. " For unto us a child (Jesus — W.) is born ; unto us a Son 
is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name 
shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting 
Father (the Father of the Age. — W.), The Prince of Peace." Of the increase 
of (his) government (the governed. — W.) and peace (there shall be) no end 
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish 
it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever. The zeal of 
the Lord of hosts will perform this." Is. ix. 6. 7. " He (Jesus — W.) shall 
be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall 
give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and He shall reign over 
the house of Jacob forever ; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." 
Lu. 1. 32. 33. " For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to 
sit on the throne of the house of Israel." Thus saith the Lord, If ye can 
break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that 
there should not be day and night in their season ; (then) may also my 
covenant be broken with David my servant that he should not have a son 
to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites, the priests my ministers. 
As the hosts of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sands of the sea 
measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites 
that minister unto me, since the Hebrews were a nation of priests (Ex. xix. 
6.), the Levites would fitly represent Messiah's holy nation, since it is said 
David shall not want a son to occupy his throne it has been inferred that this 
teaches an unbroken perpetual succession of heirs on David's throne : con- 
sequently, during the last eighteen hundred years, in some region of the 
globe, David's throne must have been occupied by some of his heirs. This, 
in our judgment, does not necessarily follow. There is a difference between 
a continuous unbroken chain of reigning heirs on David's throne and the 
reign of one heir through endless ages. Messiah was David's son, whose 
reign was to be endless. A chain may have faulty or even broken links 



468 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

without terminating. The 70 years' captivity was a broken link in the 
Davidian reign, and for more than five centuries that family reign was 
tributary to the Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, to the birth of Mes- 
siah, and onward to the fall of Jerusalem, under Titus: still this seventy 
years of a broken link did not terminate the Royal Family op David. If 
seventy years' suspension did not terminate the royal line or chain of 
David, eighteen centuries will not terminate it. A suspension is not a 
termination. The true heir to David's throne did not appear till 500 years 
after the first suspension. Messiah will as certainly fill an endless reign 
on David's throne, after said chain has been broken 1800 years, as that He 
was incarnated after a suspension of 70 years. The idea seems to be this : 
Saul's family became extinct, but David's family will be endless in its regal 
duration. It had become poor and had fallen low, having lost all regal 
dignity at the birth of the promised seed : but through him it becomes per- 
petual. The language of the Bible, when critically interpreted, allows 
breaks and suspensions in the reign. 

During the captivity of Judah in Babylon God exercised parental care 
over His covenant people ; not allowing them to be exterminated, or hope- 
lessly amalgamated with heathen nations or practices : nor to be unduly 
oppressed. Daniel is an illustrious example of their treatment in their 
seventy years of expatriation : so of Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua, and 
Zerubbabel, Jehovah purposed to drive idols and idol-worship out of His 
sanctuary and from the hearts of His people ; and yet so far to protect this 
division of His family as to secure the genealogical line of David's family, 
so that the title of His beloved Son to the throne of David might be dis- 
tinctly traced : for if that family, in its genealogical records, had become so 
mixed with heathen families as to render it impossible to be traced. His 
heirship would have failed, and Jesus of Nazareth would have failed to hear, 
*' Hosanna to the Son of David." The genealogy of this Son of David 
claims special attention as the seed of the woman who is to wrest the do- 
minion of the earth from the seed of the serpent. 

Genealogy of the 8th epoch, Babylonian Captivity. We shall simply 
trace the genealogy of the family which was to give birth to Messiah the 
true seed, the family of David, of the tribe Judah. We must keep in view 
that the two rival tribes, Judah, and Ephraim, were to give birth to the one 
seed and the multitudinous seed. We have traced Ephraim, through his 
long captivity. Leaving that line we are now tracing the history of Judah 
down to the same period of the world's history. 

We have followed Judah to the close of its 70 years of expatriation. 
It now remains that we trace the genealogy of the one seed, Messiah, to the 
same point. To do this we must follow David's royal line. In tracing ten- 
tribed Israel (Ephraim) we saw that, from Jeroboam to their captivity, 
there were at least five dynasties or reigning families, one royal family after 
another becoming extinct. How difierent is the genealogy of the house of 
David : no change of dynasty. "And Solomon's son (was) Rehoboam, 
Abia his son, Asa his son, Jehoshapat his son, Joram his son, Ahaziah 
(Azariah — W.) his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah (Uzziah 2 



HEBREW PHASE. 459 

Ki. XV. 30) his son, Jotham his son, Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manas- 
seh his son, Amon his son, Josiah his son, Jehoiakim (Eliakim 2 ^I^i. xxiii. 
34) his son, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, 2 Ki. xxiv. 6., or Coniah, Jer. xxii. 24) 
his son, Zedekiah (Mattaniah 2 Ki. xxiv. 17) his son, Salathiel son of Jeco- 
niah, Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel (Shealtiel Ne. xii. 1) ; no change in 
the dynasty. 

These family records were evidently designed by God to establish 
Messiah's right to the throne of David ; since He had promised to perpetuate 
the royal line of David. When, therefore, Jesus of Nazareth laid claims to 
the heirship, and a voice from heaven saying, " This is my beloved Son," 
hear Him, His genealogy had to be traced back to David. Hence Matthew 
traces His legal descent through Joseph His legal father and Luke gives his 
natural descent through Mary His mother after the flesh. We have now 
brought the line of the one seed from David to Zerubbabel who first occu- 
pies David's throne after the 70 years' suspension. We have now about five 
centuries of that line to trace l;^fore the one seed is born. This period we 
denominate the ninth Epoch of l|^e Hebsew history. This period is covered 
in its first 125 years by the inspired writings of Haggai, Zechariah, Nehe- 
miah and Malachi, and in its second period which includes about four cen- 
turies, is described by the two books of Maccabees, the writings of Philo 
Judaeas and Josephus, with fragments of Greek and Latiri history. We 
follow the Hebrew family, composed principally of the family of Judah 
and " his companions," made up of individuals of the ten tribes that had 
adhered to the temple service, and had social relationships with Judah 
(Eze. xxxvii. 16-20). We shall examine this period of Jewish history to 
develop the foot-prints of Jehovah in guiding and protecting their subor- 
dinate nationality till it should give birth to the one seed, Jesus, the 
Messiah, God's only begotten and well-beloved Son. We shall necessarily 
be brief. The object of God's holding them to His land. His re-built temple. 
His law and His re-established worship will fully appear. For the ten tribes 
Jehovah had a great western world-wide mission. He had now been train- 
ing them in other lands over two centuries. But Judah's mission required 
Him to remain in the promised land until Messiah should be born and His 
gospel should take deep root in the heart of the great " iron " empire. 
About the close of the seventy years God began to wake up His slumbering 
captive people. Daniel, a distinguished captive, began to read Jeremiah 
relative to his 70 years, the predicted duration of Judah's captivity 
in Babylon. For half a century God had been training in Persia, a Jewish 
deliverer in the person of Cyrus. This part of Judah's history had long 
been revealed to that people by Isaiah (see Is. xliv. and xlv.) There 175 
years before Cyrus is born he is called " Cyrus," my shepherd, and shall 
perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; 
and to the temple, Thy foundations shall be laid," Thus saith the Lord 
(B. C. 712) to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to 
subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open 
before him the two leaved gate ; and the gates (that night, of Belshazzar's 
feast, B. C. 588 — W.) shall not be shut. I (Jehovah — W) will go before 



460 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

thee (Cyrus on thy march with the kings of the East— W.), and make the 
crooked places straight ; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in 
sunder the bars of iron ; and I (Jehovah — W.) will give thee (Cyrus — W.) 
the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou 
(Cyrus — W.) mayest know that I, the Lord, which call (thee) by thy name, 
(am) the God of Israel. 

For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called 
thee by thy name : I have surnamed thee (Cyrus — W.) though thou hast 
not known me (Jehovah — W.) By Chronology it was 224 years from the 
time that Jehovah uttered these words to the prophet Isaiah, till their 
accomplishment, clearly demonstrating Jehovah's knowledge of and 
power over nationalities. Isaiah, at that time had no knowledge of Baby- 
lon and its secret treasures except by Divine Revelation. It is also true 
that Babylon at that early date (B. C. 712) would not suit the description 
in Isaiah; the city being inferior till near the reign of Nebuchadnezzar 

B. C. 604-561. Babylon, Cyrus and the taking of 4hat proud city, were (B. 

C, 712) hid alone with Jehovah, as to their greatness and destinies. 

Cyrus attributes his success to Jehovah, and therefore as the God of 
Israel he prepares to obey Him. He thus speaks, " Now in the first year of 
Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah 
might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, 
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and (put it) also 
in writing, saying. Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of 
heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and He hath charged 
me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which (is) in Judah. Who (is 
there) among you of all his people ? his God be with him, and let him go 
up to Jerusalem, which (is) in Judah and build the house of the Lord God 
of Israel, (He (is) the God,) which (is) in Jerusalem. And whosoever re- 
maineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help 
him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, besides the free will offer- 
ing for the house of God in Jerusalem." Ezra i. 1-5. Cyrus (born B. C. 
600) was named by Jehovah B. C. 712, 112 years before his birth. Who, 
then, can question the truth of what Cyrus here declares, " The Lord God 
of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ?" 

God had revealed to Jeremiah the fact and duration of Judah's cap- 
tivity. " These nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 
And it shall come to pass, when the seventy years are accomplished, (that) 
I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for 
their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it perpetual 
desolations." " Therefore fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the 
Lord ; neither be dismayed, Israel : for, lo, I will save thee from afar, 
and thy seed from the land of their captivity ; and Jacob shall return, and 
shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make (him) afraid. For I 
(am) with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make a full end of 
all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of 
thee : but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether 
unpunished." Jer. xxv. 11. 12; xxix. 10. 11. Daniel, by searching the 



HEBREW PHASE. 461 

books of Jeremiah and other prophets, and by comparing the various 
prophetic statements, learned that the 70 years of their captivity was about 
expiring, set himself about the necessary preparations for the accomplish- 
ment of that great national event (see Dan. ix. 2-27.)- How distinct and 
far-reaching are Jehovah's plans to put into execution the different items 
of His great national purpose relative to Judah. To cure their offensive 
idolatry, and to allow His land to enjoy her Sabbaths, He had sent His 
national prophet Jeremiah to declare the fact, nature, and duration of their 
captivity. According to his predictions their removal came, and with it 
all their severe calamities. At first the captives were in deep sorrow. " By 
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down ; yea, we wept when we remem- 
bered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof: 
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and 
they that wasted us (required of us) mirth, (saying) ' Sing us (one) of the 
songs of Zion.' How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? If 
I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget (her cunning). If I 
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I 
prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, Lord, the children 
of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said. Raze (it), raze (it), (even) to 
the foundation thereof. daughters of Babylon, who art to be destroyed ; 
happy (shall he be) that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy 
(shall he be) that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stone." 
Ps. cxxxvii. This deep sadness passes away as in revolving years they 
mingle with the heathen, and find new homes. Near the close of the pre- 
dicted seventy years they were soundly sleeping within in the bosom of the 
great empire. But He whose veracity was at stake neither slumbers nor 
sleeps. By His orders Cyrus, His shepherd, is on his way with the kings 
of the East to open the prison doors and let His prisoners go free. His 
chastisement is about dropping its last sands, when His people will be at 
liberty to return to Zion ! Jehovah Himself sees to the accomplishment of 
His own utterances by His own holy seers. The predictions of Isaiah and 
Jeremiah, relative to Cyrus, Jerusalem, and Babylon, trembled on the thres- 
hold of fulfillment or failure. Babylon falls, and the way of Judah's re- 
turn is opened, but the captives scattered through the fallen empire with 
fetters broken, still slumber. The same Governor that has opened their 
prison doors must now wake them to see. This He does by moving by His 
spirit the mind of Cyrus His shepherd, to issue His decree for their restitu- 
tion. Distinguished men among the captives, such as Ezra, Nehemiah, 
Joshua, Zerubbabel, Haggai and Zechariah, are aroused for the purpose of 
waking up the masses. So well satisfied were the Jews as a people with 
their heathen lands, possessions, wives, and modes of life, that a small 
remnant only under Joshua and Zerubbabel first, and still later under Ezra 
the scribe, was induced to return to establish Jerusalem and the temple 
service. We have been particular in our remarks introductory to the ninth 
epoch of Hebrew history, because it is full of Jehovah's parental dealings 
with that family, and exhibits the care He exercises toward keeping invio- 
late His Word expressed by the prophets. His national purpose, relative 



462 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

to that people, His oath to DaAdd, and His promises to His Son Messiah, 
oblige Him to shape the destinies of all nations, so as to suit the " number 
of the children of Israel." We are now prepared to trace that people under 
Persia, Greco-Macedonia and Rome, to the birth of Messiah. 

Though the 70 years' captivity ended Hebrew idolatry in Palestine it 
did not restore God's worship to its original purity in all its details. 
Heathen association had resulted in family mixtures, rendering their re- 
turn to Hebrew unity a matter of great labor and social misery. Mixed 
families had become numerous, endangering the genealogical line of the 
One Seed. Ezra and Nehemiah brought the people back to the strictness of 
the law and purified the priesthood, even at the painful cost of severing 
family membership. The reconstruction of the temple required much time 
and labor; and when finished it was, in many points, so inferior to that 
erected by Solomon that the old men that had seen the first wept bitterly at 
the humiliating contrast ; no ark of the covenant ; no sacred fire ; no mercy 
seat with its cherubim ; no oracle of Urim and Thummim ; and other arti- 
cles of great interest. Haggai strove to comfort them on the occasion of 
its dedication by uttering the following remarkable prediction : " Who 
(is) left among you that saw this house in her first glory ? and how do 
ye see it now? (is it) not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? 
Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be strong, Joshua, 
son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong all ye people of the land, 
saith the Lord, and work; for I (am) with you, saith the Lord of hosts; 
(according to) the word that covenanted with you when ye came out of 
Egypt, so ray spirit remaineth among you; fear ye not. For thus saith 
the Lord of hosts : Yet once, it (is) a little while, and I will shake the 
heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry (land) ; and I will 
shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come ; and I will 
fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this 
latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts ; 
and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Hag. ii. 3-9. 
In connexion with this subject of the temple we will present what Jehovah 
said to Zechariah and Malachi. In Zech. iv. 7, Zerubbabel is made a type 
of Christ: "Who (art) thou, great mountain ? (Gentile kingdom oppos- 
ing — W.) before Zerubbabel, (thou shalt become) a plain ; and he shall 
bring forth the head-stone (thereof with) shoutings, (crying) Grace, grace 
unto it. In Mai. iii. 1 are these words. Behold I will send my messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord whom ye seek shall 
suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom 
ye delight in ; behold He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." What tem- 
ple is intended? Who is the messenger? and what advent is named? 
These three questions deserve due consideration, that we may understand 
fully the dignity of the temple, its Lord, and Avorship, spoken of by these 
three prophets. (1) Was this temple commenced and finished by Zerub- 
babel, son of Salathiel, whose first high priest was Joshua, son of Josedech, 
a new and second temple ? The language used by Haggai makes it Solo- 
mon's temple jebuilt ; for he says, " Who (is) left among you that saw this 



HEBREW PHASE. 463 

house in her first glory ? and how do ye see it now, (is it) not in your eyes 
in comparison of it as nothing?" He says, I will fill " this house." "This 
latter house," was not this house, Solomon's temple rebuilt ? Such is a fair 
construction of Jehovah's language by Haggai. His terms are, " This 
house in her first glory." This (Solomon's temple) second glory, (Zerub- 
babel's) Herod's temple was Solomon's temple in its third glory. One tem- 
ple, or God's visible house, under three glories, the first that of Solomon ; 
the second that of Zerubbabel ; the third that of Herod the Great ; since 
Herod's temple was as distinctly a new temple as that of Zerubbabel, for 
Josephus says, ''And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and 
after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is to 
build of himself the temple of God." The temple of Zerubbabel was then 
standing, for Herod, in his speech, said, " Our fathers, indeed, when they 
were returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty ; yet does 
it want sixty cubits of its largeness in altitude ; for so much did that 
first temple, which Solomon built, exceed this temple ; nor let no one con- 
demn our fathers for their negligence or want of piety therein, for it was 
not their fault that the temple was no higher; for they were Cyrus and 
Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who determined the measure for its rebuild- 
ing; and it hath been by reason of the subjection of those fathers of ours 
to them and to their posterity, and after them to the Macedonians, that 
they had not th^ opportunity to follow the original model of this pious 
edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient attitude ; but since I (Herod) am 
now by God's will your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and 
have gained great riches and large revenues, and what is the principal 
thing of all, I am in amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, 
if I may so say, are the rulers of the whole world, I will endeavor to 
correct their imperfection which hath arisen from the necessity of our 
affairs, and the slavery we have been under formerly; and to make a 
thankful return, after the most pious manner, to God for what blessings I 
have received from Him, by giving me this kingdom, and that by render- 
ing His temple as complete as I am able." 

At this speech the Jews were exceedingly troubled, for fear that he 
would pull down their whole temple and not be able to replace it, and in 
this manner obstruct their worship. Herod then answered that " He 
would not pull down their temple till all things were gotten ready for 
building it up entire again." "And he promised them this before hand, so 
he did not break his word with them ; but got ready a thousand wagons, 
that were to bring stones for the building, and chose out ten thousand of 
the most skilful workmen, and bought a thousand sacerdotal garments for 
as many of the priests, and had some of them taught the arts of stone- 
cutters, and others of carpenters, and then began to build ; but this not un- 
til every thing was well prepared for the work. So Herod took away the 
old foundations, and laid others, and erected the temple upon them, being 
in length a hundred cubits, and in height twenty additional cubits." Thus 
speaks Josephus, relative to Herod's temple. Improvements and repairs 
were made to this temple, so that the Jews said to Christ, Forty and six 



464 THE EASTEElSf QUESTION, 

years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days." 
Jno. ii. 20. 

In Whiston's translation of Josephus we have this note : ^' We may 
here observe that the fancy of the modern Jews, in calling this temple, 
which was really the third of their temples, the second temple, followed so 
long by later Christians, seems to be without any solid foundation. The 
reason why the Christians here follow the Jews is, because the prophecy of 
Haggai ii. 6-9, which they expound of Messiah's coming to the second of 
Zorobabel's temple, of which they suppose this of Herods to be only a con- 
tinuation, which is meant, I think, of his coming to the fourth and last tem- 
ple, or to that future largest and most glorious one described by Ezekiel. 
"Whence I take the former notion, how general soever, to be a great mis- 
take." 

Our conclusion is about as follows, the temple of God, first erected by 
Solomon, which was double the area occupied by the tabernacle, God's visi- 
ble abode in the wilderness, was the place of Jehovah's visible presence on 
earth, in the midst of His special Hebrew family, out of which was to come 
Messiah, His incarnate Son. The priesthood and service of that family in 
Jerusalem were to continue till the birth of Messiah, that His lineage 
might be traced to David, as the legal and natural heir to His throne. 
A continuous and visible worship was necessary to secure that end, since 
the scattering of Judah among the nations, during fi /e centuries, would 
have put an end to all their family records. Judah's tribeship and subor- 
dinate government had to continue to the birth of the Messiah (Gen. xlix. 
10). A change or rebuilding of the house did not make a plurality of tem- 
ples or dwelling places of the Deity on earth ; the place is singular, local, 
and identical. The rebuilding perpetuates the structure. The church is per- 
petuated through thousands of mutations and reconstructions. The resur- 
rection body does not destroy personal identity. As the tabernacle, God's 
dwelling place with the Hebrews, was a pattern, or type, of His dwelling 
place, the universe, so was Solomon's temple such a type, and Zerubbabel's 
building and that of Herod were simply the perpetuation of the one typical 
temple. The " coming age " will have another temple, peculiarly the Mes- 
siah's, to be occupied by Him during the age of subjugation ; for He must 
reign till He hath put all His enemies under His feet. (1 Cor. xv. 25.) 
There was a temple for the Shechinah. ( " Let them make me a sanctuary, 
Shechinah, that I may dwell among them." Ex. xxv. 8). But this She- 
chinah (visible glory) though in the tabernacle, and in Solomon's temple, 
was one of the five particulars wanting in its reconstructions under Zerub- 
babel and Herod the Great. There will be a temple, where there shall not 
be simply the glory (Shechinah), but the possessor of the glory, shall be 
personally present. Eze. xliii. 7-9 ; Zech. ii. 10, viii. 3. 

The temple service, of the five centuries, before the birth of Christ was 
inferior to that of the tabernacle, or to the ministrations of Solomon's tem- 
ple. The land also was not as productive, though, for seventy years, it had 
been resting. Their offerings were inferior, and sometimes very defective in 
kind and quantity. In the time of Malachi it had become a robbery. 



HEBREW PHASE. 465 

" Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Whereirt 
have we robbed thee ? In tithes and offerings." Mai. iii. 8. Idolatry, 
however, such as was prevalent under their divided monarchy, did not ex- 
ist in Judah after their captivity. After they got rid of their heathen wives 
and their temple service was resumed they kept their ceremonial law, in- 
cluding the Sabbath, with some degree of strictness. Judah, while under 
the ilomination of the Medo-Persian empire, usually enjoyed the friendship 
and protection of those monarchs : yet did they suffer many hardships^ 
from their surrounding nations. Still these hostilities served, in the provi- 
dence of God, to keep Jehovah's family from imitating their idolatrous 
practices, or from becoming too much mingled with heathen blood. One 
special Providence, while under Persian rule, is worthy of special notice, 
their deliverance under Artaxerxes (Ahasuerus), recorded in the " volume 
of Esther." The occasion is perhaps familiar to all, still as it is so signal 
an illustration of our position, that God's parental eye ever followed His 
family, we can not do justice to our subject and allow it passed without 
some attention. The Book of Esther is an episode belonging to a space be- 
tween the 6th and 7th chapters of Ezra. The event, or topic of the book, 
is " Haman's plot for the Jews' destruction throughout the Persian empire, 
then containing 127 provinces, extending from India to Ethiopia." 

This Ahasuerus was Artaxerxes Longimanus, as shoAvn by the septua- 
gint translator, Josephus, Dean Prideaux, Drs. Hales, Clarke and Boothroyd;: 
Hartwell Home, G. Townsend, and the late Scott, and who showed such 
peculiar favor to the Jews under Ezra and Nehemiah. The circumstances 
were as follows : The king having made a great feast sent an invitation to 
his queen Vashti. On her refusal (she supposing that the king in his cups 
might expose her to his nobles), the monarch, highly insulted, put her 
away, and ordered another queen to be selected from the beauty of his em- 
pire. Among the maidens gathered, from which a selection was to be 
taken, was Esther, whose uncle was Mordecai the Jew. This Jew had on a 
certain occasion saved the life of his monarch, without receiving any reward 
except a simple record of the act. Haman, the Amalekite, of the family of 
Agag, under a divine anathema (Ex. xvii. 8-16; 1 Sam. xv. 2. 3.), was, at 
that time, prime minister to the great monarch. Esther, on account of her 
excellence and beauty, was made queen in the place of Vashti. To Haman 
Mordecai bowed not, though such was the king's decree. This want of due 
respect from Mordecai so insulted Haman, that he resolved on signal 
vengeance. Not esteeming Mordecai the Jew of sufficient note he resolved 
on the extinction of the Hebrew race, scattered as they were through th& 
127 provinces. For ten thousand talents of silver (over $10,000,000) Haman 
bought up all the Jews of the empire; cast lots (Purim) for the lucky 
month and day for their destruction, (which fell on the 14th day of the- 
month Adar,) and hastened to the king for his royal sanction, which was. 
readily obtained. The decree necessarily involved the lives of Mordecai 
and his niece, the queen, who was tenderly loved by the king (for the king, 
did not then know her people). When this decree (that could not be 
changed) was made known there was great lamentation among the Jews; 
30 



466 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

throughout the empire. God had ordered that the day of execution for 
those people, who were to Him as the apple of His eye, should be as far 
distant as possible ; after which He set Himself to work, through human 
agency, for their deliverance. Then follows a chain of remarkable provi- 
dences, the fasts, the two entertainments of the queen, between which 
Haman prepares to hang Mordecai, the king's sleepless night, his resolution 
to honor Mordecai, Haman's visit to the king for permission to hang Mor- 
decai converted into a triumphant ride of the same Mordecai the Jew 
through the streets of Shushan, arrayed in royal apparel, a crown on his 
head, conducted by Haman as his servant, Haman's exposure before the 
queen at her second banquet, his being seen on the bed of the queen, his 
execution on Mordecai's gallows, and the method devised by the king to 
save the lives of the Jews, and the confiscation of Haman's possessions. 

All these events might be attributed to voluntary, unassisted human 
agency. Such, however, is not the true solution of these most singular 
events, nor have the Jews from that day to the present so considered them. 
This deliverance, they regard, was accomplished by the same divine hand 
that brought them out of Egyptian bondage. That these events took place 
is established by the feast of Purim, which has been observed by the Jews 
from that day to the present. The manner in which it is kept is thus 
described by David Levi : " During this festival the Book of Esther is 
solemnly read in the synagogue; and whenever the name of Haman oc- 
curs, the whole congregation clap their hands, stamp their feet, and vocifer- 
ate, ' Let his name and memory be blotted out,' ' The name of the wicked 
shall rot.' It is also customary for the children, who have little 
wooden hammers, to knock against the wall, as a memorial that they 
should endeavor to destroy the whole seed of Amalek. Their prayers for 
the deliverance of their nation are accompanied with curses on Haman and 
his wife, and blessings on Mordecai and Esther. This is a time of peculiar 
gayety. Alms are given to the poor; relations and friends send presents to 
each other; all furnish their tables with every luxury they can command; 
and they indulge themselves largely in their cups, in memory of Esther's 
banquet of wine, at which she succeeded in defeating the designs of 
Haman." That this deliverance was one of divine accomplishment ap- 
pears evident if we reflect that Judah's destruction would have defeated 
His purpose relative to the birth of the one seed, in this, the genealogical 
line might have been interrupted; and also God's method of instructing 
the nations in the true principles of His divine nature, by that people 
whom He had taught and appointed for that purpose. 

With but few exceptions, the Jews had a powerful friend in the Persian 
empire. Their worship, however, is not highly spoken of by Malachi. He 
calls them a nation of robbers, as to tithes and offerings. He charges the 
priesthood with corruption, and the people with great neglect in their 
temple oflerings. Their civil officers were subordinate to the Persians, yet 
they succeeded each other in the royal line of the house of David. Such a 
state of things continued about two centuries, till the time of Alexander 
the Great, under whom they became tributary lo the Macedonians. By 



HEBREW PHASE. 467 

reason of a vision which Alexander had while in his own country, when 
about to undertake his Persian expedition; and another dream, that of 
Jaddua the high-priest, this haughty young prince from the West, bowed 
before the high-priest of Jehovah, to the astonishment of his army. He 
went with the high-priest to the temple, where he was so highly honored, 
that he granted to the Jews whatever privileges their high-priest should 
solicit. It was only requested that they might enjoy the laws of their fore- 
fathers; that their brethren in Babylon and Media might be permitted to 
do the same ; and that they might be excused from paying tribute on the 
seventh, or sabbatic year. Under these special privileges they continued 
till Alexander's successors in Egypt and Syria began their persecutions. 
Under Ptolemy Lagus (soter of the Greeks) Jerusalem was taken on the 
Jewish sabbath, their law not allowing them to defend themselves on that 
day. By Ptolemy the Jews were at first oppressed, one hundred thousand 
being taken into Egypt ; but, reflecting upon their fidelity to their former 
masters, Alexander, the Persians and Babylonians, he relented, and em- 
ployed them in his garrisons and armies. He finally gave to them all their 
privileges and immunities, whereupon the whole nation cheerfully sub- 
mitted to his government. Under his reign, Simon the Just, an honorable 
high-priest, completed the canon of the Old Testament by the addition of 
the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi, B. C. 278. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded B. C. 271. He was the patron of 
learning ; the founder of the Alexandrian Library ; and into this library 
he put the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, furnished him by 
the labors of six learned Jews out of each tribe ; for, although the body of 
the ten tribes still remained in that captivity which had already continued 
nearly four and one half centuries, there were a few out of each tribe that 
had adhered to the fortunes of Judah on account of social and temple 
privileges. This translation is called the Septuagint (70). Josephus ex- 
presses Ptolemy's request for a translation in these words: "As I am de- 
sirous to do what will be grateful to these (Jews), and to all other Jews in 
the habitable earth, I have determined to procure an interpretation of your 
law and to have it translated out of the Hebrew into Greek, and to be 
deposited in my library. Thou wilt therefore do well to choose out and 
send to me men of good character, who are now elders in age, and six in 
number out of every tribe. These, by their age, must be skilful in the 
laws, and of abilities to make an accurate interpretation of them ; and 
when this shall be finished, I shall think that I have done a work glorious 
to myself. And I have sent to thee Andreas, the captain of my guard, and 
Aristeus, men whom I have in very great esteem, by whom I have sent 
those first fruits which I have dedicated to the temple, and to the sacrifices, 
and to other uses, to the value of a hundred talents. And if thou wilt 
send to us to let us know what thou wouldest have farther, thou wilt do a 
thing acceptable to me." To this letter Eleazar the high-priest sent an 
answer, that they had chosen six persons out of every tribe for the purpose 
of making such a translation of their law, which work resulted in forming 
a Greek book called the Septuagint. 



468 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

This work was an invaluable aid to the spread of a knowledge of the 
divine law throughout the world, since the Greek language was at that 
time and for many centuries very generally spoken. We cannot view this 
act in any other light than that of a special providence. As Jehovah was 
preparing the nations for the advent of His beloved Son, it was necessary 
that all the eastern world should be informed of His mission and of His 
illustrious personage. The approach of a Messiah had to this time been 
known only to the Hebrews, but as He was to be the Christ for all nations, 
it was necessary that the news of His approach should appear in a language 
familiar to the Gentile world ; for He was to be not only the " glory of His 
people Israel," but also a "light to lighten the Gentiles." 

God aims to speak His divine precepts in a known tongue. What was, 
at this time (B. C. 265), the condition of the Jews in the eastern world? 
The kings of Egypt and Syria were so friendly to the Hebrews that they 
allowed them the exercise of their own religion, and were so liberal as to 
furnish golden vessels and animals for temple services. The Jewish re- 
ligion was quite popular, and, consequently, its peculiar rituals and Mes- 
sianic expectations became very generally known. The splendor of the 
temple services made Judaism more attractive to the heathen ; and the 
strict morality and zeal of many of its devotees attracted the attention of 
the philosophers of the heathen world. That the heathen nations were be- 
ginning to be more or less familiar with the Jews' expectancy of the advent 
of a great King will appear from the visit of the Magi to Herod the Great, 
Saying, " Where is He that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen 
His star in the East (while residing in the East) and are come to worship 
Him." Matt. ii. 2. They were not disappointed in their expectations, 
even when finding the infant with its mother ia a manger, for they fell 
down and worshiped Him ; and when they had opened their treasures, they 
presented unto Him gifts, (royal gifts — W.) gold, and frankincense, and 
myrrh. The visit with its presents were the fruits of a long intimacy with 
the Jewish Scriptures. God had put this knowledge into their hearts, that 
His Son might be honored at His birth, and that His revelations to the 
prophets might be declared true. The treatment of the Jews was exceed- 
ingly varied. Under one set of monarchs filling the thrones of Egypt and 
Syria they were treated with the highest consideration, they being made 
citizens, and having full liberty in their temple services ; by the succeed- 
ing kings they would be robbed and shut out of their temple, driven into 
caves, and reduced to severe servitude. Before the birth of Messiah, for 
nearly two centuries, the Jews were subjected to a baptism of fire and 
blood, which threatened, at times, the extinction of their subordinate 
nationality. 

A brief summary of the most noted events of this terrible baptism will 
now be given, trusting that the reader will peruse them with interest. 

Ptolemy Philopater was a severe persecutor of the Jews doing great 
damage to the temple and its service : — commanding all Jews, under penalty 
of death, to receive (by a hot iron) the impression (" mark ") of an ivy leaf, 
the badge of his god Bacchus. He collected a great number of the Jews in 



HEBREW PHASE. 469 

the Hippodrome of Alexandria (in Egypt) for the purpose of having them 
destroyed by his elephants. But the Almighty, who watched over His own 
people so as not to allow them to become extinct, turned the fury of these 
animals against the spectators, destroying great multitudes. This signal 
providence opened the king's eyes, who gave liberty to the Jews and gave 
them all their former privileges. He died B. C. 204. 

Seleucus Philopater, king of Syria was at first kind to the Jews but 
hearing that there were great riches, then laid up in the temple at Jerusalem, 
he commissioned his treasurer, Heliodorus, to seize them, conveying them 
to Antioch; he was so terrified by a vision of angels (as he supposed) in the 
temple, that he fainted and was carried home in a litter, B. C. 176 (2 Mac. 
iii. 24.) 

Antiochus Epiphanes, succeeded his father Antiochus the Great, on the 
Syrian throne, about B. C. 163. Having a tribute to pay to the Romans, 
he resolved to obtain a large portion of it from the Jews. To this end, he 
deposed Onias, a good man from the high priesthood, which, for 360 talents 
he sold to his brother Jason : soon after he sold it to another brother Mene- 
laus for 300 talents more. These transactions develop the deep depravity, 
that then hung about the high priesthood. On a report being circulated 
that Antiochus was dead, Jason, one of the deposed high priests, marched 
against his brother, Menelaus, with an army of 1000 men, took the city, 
drove his brother into the castle and committed great cruelties upon all that 
seemed to be his enemies. Antiochus, on the belief that the entire Jewish 
nation had revolted, and being informed of their rejoicing at his reported 
death, was resolved on their extermination, or conversion to Grecian idol- 
atry. He took Jerusalem by storm, slaying 40,000 citizens in three days 
and sold an equal number to the surrounding nations. He then plundered 
the temple of its valuable vessels and utensils, and sacrificed a sow upon 
the altar of burnt offerings, B. C. 170. (See Mac. i. 21, etc. 2 Mac. v. 11-16. 
Jos. Antiq. b. xii. ch. 7.) An army of 22,000 men was sent, the same year, 
through Judea with orders to slay all the men, and to carry into slavery 
the women and children, still not satisfied with this savage cruelty, he 
made war directly on the worship of Jehovah, by issuing an edict, which 
required all his subjects to conform to the practice of Grecian idolatry. 
This decree suspended the temple services, not only in the temple at Jeru- 
salem, but every where through his dominions. The temple itself was 
dedicated to Jupiter Olympus, whose image was placed upon the altar of 
burnt-sacrifice. In every city Grecian idols were erected, with chapels, 
groves and altars for their worship. The Jews were forced to eat swine's 
flesh. Every possible effort was made to cause the Jews to abandon their 
laws and religion. Many yielded ; others refused. Let me here say that 
the worship of idols, is, to Jehovah, a sin of the first magnitude; Thou 
shalt have no other gods before me, is the hub of the first commandment. 
Idolatry drove Ephraim and Judah into captivity. God had resolved that 
one land, at least, the typical land : His earthly dwelling-place and sanc- 
tuary should be pure from idols. For gross idolatry the Canaanites were 
exterminated, and when His own beloved family corrupted His own house 



470 ' THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

they were also removed. What a contrast between the leading Jews of the 
days of Antiochus Epiphanes and those about the temple in the days of the 
prophet Ezekiel. What does that prophet say of Hebrew idolatry of his 
time ? A celestial messenger brought Ezekiel, in a vision to Jerusalem, to 
the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north where (was) the 
seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, 
the glory of the God of Israel (was) there, according to the vision that T 
saw in the plain. Then said He unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes 
up on the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward 
the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of 
jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me. Son of man, seest 
thou what they do ? (even) the great abominations that the house of Israel 
committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee 
yet again, (and) thou shalt see greater abominations. And He brought me 
to the door of the court ; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. 
Then said He unto me. Son of man, dig now in the wall : and when I had 
digged into the wall behold a door. And He said unto me. Go in and 
behold the wicked abominations that they do there. So I went in and saw; 
and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all 
the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. 
And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of 
Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with 
every man his censer in his hand ; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 
Then said He unto me. Son of man. Hast thou seen what the ancients of 
the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his 
imagery ? for they say, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the 
earth. He said also unto me. Turn thee yet again, (and) thou shalt see 
greater abominations that they do. Then He brought me to the door of 
the gate of the Lord's house which (was) towards the north, and, behold, 
there sat women weeping for Tammuz (the Phoenician Adonis, who was 
fabled to have been a beautiful youth, beloved by Venus, and killed by a 
wild boar in Mount Lebanon whence springs the river Adonis, which was 
said to run with blood at his impure festival in August Bagster). Milton 
says. The love-tale infected Zion's daughters with like heat, whose wanton 
passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw. 

" Then said He unto me : Hast thou seen (this), son of man ? Turn 
thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And 
He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at 
the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, (were) 
about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the 
Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshiped the sun towards 
the east. Then He said unto me. Hast thou seen (this) son of man? 
Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abomina- 
tions which they commit here? For they have filled the land with vio- 
lence, and have returned to provoke me to anger : and, lo, they put the 
branch to their nose (as the heathen Magi in their fire-worship). There- 
fore will I also deal in my fury : mine eye shall not spare, neither will I 



HEBREW PHASE. 471 

have pity : and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, (yet) will I 
not hear them." Eze. viii. 3-18. Such was Judah about the commence- 
ment of her 70 years' captivity. How changed as to idol worship. Jeho- 
vah resolved to cleanse His sanctuary, by banishing from the land its idols 
for ever, and its idol-worshipers of His own family, until they were fully 
reformed as to idolatry and Sabbath violations. Since their return from 
the Babylonian exile, where has heathen idolatry had any firm voluntary 
foot-hold in Judah ? Their persecutions under Antiochus Epiphanes de- 
veloped a constancy, and attachment to the laws and rituals of Moses, 
worthy of the highest commendation. Two examples we shall outline 
from Josephus and the Maccabees. 

(1) Eleazar, a high-priest, supposed to be one of the chief of the Sep- 
tuagint translators (President), was, when apprehended by Antiochus, 
about 90 years old. A piece of swine's flesh being forced into his mouth, 
it was immediately ejected, when he offered himself to the tormentors. He 
was advised to take other flesh, pretending to be eating swine's flesh. This 
deception he refused, urging that would be setting a bad example before 
the youth. He resolved to ''set a notable example to those that be young, 
to die willingly and courageously for the honorable and holy laws." Thus 
speaking he submitted freely to the tormentors and expired. (2) The other 
martyrdom was that of an aged matron whose name was Solomona, and 
her seven sons. " She not only bore the sight of their unparallelled suffer- 
ings with fortitude, but exhorted them individually, as it came to their 
turn to suffer, to be faithful to the death. And when it came to the turn 
of the youngest son, to whom the king offered, not only his life but great 
promotion, and rewards, and entreated his mother to counsel him to ac- 
cept them ; she promised to counsel him, and bowing herself towards him, 
laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, spake in her country language (the 
Hebrew) on this manner : ' my son, have pity on me, that bare thee nine 
months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, 
and brought thee up unto this age, and endured the troubles of education 
* * * *, Fear not this tormentor; but, being worthy of thy brethren, 
take thy death that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren.' 
While she was yet speaking these words, the young man offered himself to 
death before the tyrant, saying, ' I as my brethren, offer up my body and 
life for the laws of our fathers, beseeching God that He would speedily be 
merciful unto our nation ; and that thou, by torments and plagues, mayest 
confess that He alone is God ; and that in me and my brethren the wrath 
of the Almighty, which is justly brought upon our nation may cease.' 
Then the king, being in a rage, handled him worse than all the rest, and 
took it grievously that he was mocked. So this man died undefiled, and 
put his whole trust in the Lord. Last of all, after the sons, the mother 
died." (2 Mac. vii.) 

While these scenes were transpiring at Jerusalem, the Lord God of 
Israel was preparing a family of deliverers in another quarter. This was 
the family of Mattathias, and his sons (known afterwards by the name of 
the Maccabees). Mattathias retired to Modin, in the tribe of Dan, to 



472 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

mourn over the sad desolations of his country. Persecution had extended 
even to that land. While Apelles, one of the king's military officers, was 
addressing the people, especially Mattathias, whom he promised great pro- 
motion, the old veteran Jew replied, that he should obey God rather than 
man. Seeing one of his apostate-countrymen bowing before a heathen 
altar he slew him ; and then put to death those that had been sent to 
execute the king's orders. 

Having accomplished this work, Mattathias began an exterminating 
war upon the king's idols, overturning their altars wherever found, after 
which he retired to the mountains, where he collected all his forces. In 
the caverns many were suffocated ; and refusing to fight on the Sabbath 
days, they were defeated, and many destroyed. It was finally decided, that 
they had a right to defend themselves on that day. This venerable patriot, 
as Jacob of old, calling his five sons around him, gave them his last solemn 
charge, that they fight for their religion and their country ; appointed 
Judas (usually called Maccabeus) their leader, and Simon their counsellor; 
^nd then at the advanced age of 146 years he expired. 

Judas took command of the little band of patriots about B. C. 166. 
His success against fearful odds abundantly demonstrated the fact, that 
Jehovah had undertaken a second time to cleanse His land from the sins 
and corruptions of idol-worship. With 1500 men he battled successfully 
against armies numbering nearly 100,000. He visited all parts of Judea, 
and exterminated every vestige of idolatry, punishing severely the apostate 
Jews. He soon broke the Syrian yoke, and gave freedom to his country- 
men. Jehovah went before him as when the Hebrews of old passed 
through great wilderness. 

Antiochus returning from an unsuccessful expedition against the Per- 
sians, learned that the Jews had recovered their liberty. This intelligence 
moved him into a storm of passion and he vowed the total extinction of 
the nation, not in any manner conscious that his chief enemy was Jeho- 
vah, the " Lord God of Israel." He commanded his chariot to be driven 
with furious haste towards the land of Judea ; but the angel of Divine 
jealousy met him in the way. In the very moment, however, of giving his 
orders, the pains of a terrible disorder seized him. His bowels were filled 
with excruciating pains. In a paroxysm of torment and rage, he fell from his 
carriage, and was so bruised that he was obliged to exchange his war chariot 
for a litter, and halt at a village on the confines of Persia and Babylonia, 
where he soon after expired in extreme agony of body and mind. Such 
was the deserved fate of this arch-enemy of the Jews. God will make an 
end of all despots and of heathen tribes and nationalities, but He will never 
make a full end of Judah and Israel, such a course would involve his 
veracity. " Fear thou not, Jacob, my servant, saith the Lord, for I (am) 
with thee ; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have 
driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in 
measure ; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished." Jer. xlvi. 28. 
The true philosophy of God's dealings with heathen nations and with 
His people, Israel is here distinctly enunciated, every nationality, except 



HEBREW PHASE. 473 

that of Judah and Israel united, is to come to a full end; but tlie king- 
dom of Judah and Israel, though punished and corrected in measure (to fit 
them for their work) will exist through endless duration ; and conse- 
quently will form in conjunction with a people gathered out from the 
Gentiles, the redeemed of Messiah's empire. In the vision of the stone 
and the metallic image, it is distinctly declared that the image is totally 
demolished ; reduced to dust, which is carried away in a storm, and the 
stone increased to a mountain, fills the whole earth. So John. says, that, 
under the seventh trumpet, " The nations were angry, and Thy wrath 
is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that 
Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, (of Judah and 
Israel — W.) and to the saints (those of Judah and Israel — a remnant — W.) 
and them that fear Thy name (out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, 
and tongues, (Rev. vii. 1-9 — W.) small and great, and shouldst destroy 
them which destroy the earth." Rev. xi. 18. 

God has always chosen other nations, as visible agents, to punish 
and correct His people, Israel ; still He has claimed the right to measure 
the amount and intensity of that chastisement. Whenever those nations 
showed a disposition to transcend those limits. He has raised up another 
nation to punish them, and be to the visible custodians of His people. 
Egypt was punished direct by Jehovah himself. While entering into their 
possessions in the land of promise, the heathen, on Canaanitish tribes were 
used as rods of Israel's correction. After their formation of two kingdoms 
(Israel and Judah), the Assyrians and Babylonians were Jehovah's chasten- 
ing rods. When the Babylonians began to assume too much authority, 
and to exercise their office wath arbitrary severity. He prepared another 
nation (the Medo-Persians) to punish the Babylonians, and to take charge 
of His family. After abusing their power, the Greeks and Macedonians 
took this special charge. After the death of Alexander the Great, his di- 
vided empire gave the Jews a precarious home, alternately persecuting 
them and granting them their liberty. Antiochus Epiphanes, the chief 
of the Macedonian persecutors, attacked the Jews with such exterminating 
fury that God saw fit to check him suddenly in his mad career. 

The point which the reader is required to keep in view is the govern- 
ing and superintending care of the Almighty over all nations ; but more 
especially over the Jews, so distinct was this governing Providence, that 
even heathen monarchs acknowledged it. "All the inhabitants of the 
earth (are) reputed as nothing ; and He doeth His wall in the army of 
heaven, and (among) the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay 
His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou ? Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, 
praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works (are) 
truth, and His ways judgment ; and those that walk in pride He is able to 
abase." Dan. iv. 35-37. Thus did the great king of Babylon speak after 
seven years of grass-eating. Cyrus the Great, when he had conquered 
Babylon, said, Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia, The Lord God of heaven 
hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and He hath charged me to 
build Him a house at Jerusalem, which (is) in Judah." Ezro. i. 2. Darius, 



474 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the Median, after Daniel came out of the den of lions, made the following 
decree : " That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear 
before the God of Daniel ; for He (is) the living God, and steadfast forever, 
and His kingdom (that) which shall be destroyed, and His dominion 
(shall be even) unto the end." Dan. vi. 26. Alexander also acknowledged 
an overruling power while he was among the Jews. The Romans also 
acknowledged the same. God's movements among the nations have al- 
ways declared His eternal power. 

The war against the Jews continued under Antiochus Eupator, his 
successor Judas, with very inferior forces, defeated the Syrian hosts in five 
successive battles; but in the sixth, with 800 against 100,000, he was sur- 
rounded and slain. Before the death of Judas their first treaty was made 
with the Romans (B. C. 144). Jonathan succeeded Judas, and the war con- 
tinued. Soon after the Syrian general received orders from Rome to cease 
molesting the Jews, since they were their allies and friends. Two years 
later the Syrian general, Bacchides, took an oath to molest the Jews no 
more. This oath grew out of the resolution of the Roman Senate. Jona- 
than was made high priest, being the first in that office in the Asmonaean 
family. 

Jonathan, having fought with varied success between the two parties 
in Syria, was finally betrayed and slain, and was succeeded by his brother 
Simon. This Simon, in all things, "sought the good of his nation," "and 
was honorable in all his actions." He was succeeded by his son John 
Hyrcanus, B. C. 135. He was conquered by the Syrian king. Jerusalem 
surrendered, and as a prisoner Hyrcanus followed Antiochus to the Par- 
thian war and returned home at the end of the year loaded with military 
honors. In the events of another civil war in Syria Hyrcanus, to recover 
and enlarge his possessions, in 130 B. C, entered Samaria and destroyed the 
temple which Sanballat had built 200 years before. He conquered the 
Idumeans (Edomites), and compelled them, to become j^roselytes to the 
Jewish religion, renewed his alliance with the Romans and obtained a 
decree of compensation to be granted from the Syrians. Growing in years 
himself, he sent his two sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus, to besiege the city 
of Samaria, which held out for one year. When taken, Hja'canus ordered 
it to be so destroyed that it should never be rebuilt ; yet it became a popu- 
lous city before the birth of Christ ; it having been rebuilt and enlarged 
principally by Herod the Great. John Hyrcanus was a civil and ecclesias- 
tical ruler, he being High Priest and Governor. The Jewish government 
was a union of Church and State. In certain revolutions and civil convul- 
sions they were now and then separated, especially under the restored regal 
power. During the century before the birth of Christ internal commotions 
grew apace, and the Jewish polity was exceedingly rickety. Changes fol- 
lowed changes in quick succession. Our space will not allow us to give any 
more than a brief outline of these revolutions. John Hyrcanus, having 
some difficulty with the Pharisees (they accusing him of being the son of a 
strange woman), very imprudently left that self-righteous sect and joined 
semi-infidel Sadducees. This injured his character, he having been es- 



HEBREW PHASE. 475 

teemed a hero, a wise and prudent governor, which office he had filled 
twenty-nine years. He was succeeded by his oldest son Judas, otherwise 
called Aristobulus. He filled the civil and ecclesiastical offices of his 
father; and was the first, after the captivity, that assumed the title of 
king and wore a crown. The state, therefore, became a monarch B. C. 107. 
Aristobulus was a sanguinary tyrant, as appears from his treatment of his 
own mother and brothers. He made war on the Iturians (the descendants 
Ishmael), to convert them to the law of Moses. After a short and miser- 
able reign of one year, vice and a guilty conscience brought on a painful 
disease which terminated his life. His brother, Alexander Jannoeus, suc- 
ceeded him, going from prison to a throne. He was constantly occupied in 
neighboring wars during the twenty-six years of his inglorious reign. 

His queen, Alexandria, succeeded him ; and by courting the favor of the 
Pharisees, reigned nine years. Upon her death (B. C. 69), her oldest son, 
Hyrcanus, succeeded to the throne, and held it in peace two years ; and in 
disputes with his brother, Aristobulus, one year and a half longer, he re- 
signed the government to Aristobulus, when he (Aristobulus) retired to 
Jerusalem where he was besieged by Pompey and taken prisoner. Hyrca- 
nus was again made High Priest and prince of the Jews, but was not 
allowed to wear the diadem, that belonging to the Romans. (Eze. xxi. 25, 
26). Judea was reduced to its ancient limits and was made tributary to 
Rome. Pompey, though master of Jerusalem, did not touch any of its . 
sacred treasures. The war between Caesar and Pompey commenced B. C. 
50. This was Julius Caesar. In the following year was the decisive battle 
of Pharsalia, when, by the defeat of Pompey, Cffisar became master of the 
Roman world. After various changes of fortune of Hyrcanus and Aristo- 
bulus, Julius Caesar came into Judea (B. C. 47), confirmed Hyrcanus in the 
High Priesthood. On the death of Julius Caesar, the embassadors of the 
Jews were introduced into the Roman Senate and obtained many privileges 
for their nation. In the year 41 B. C. Herod (afterward called the Great) 
and Phasael, the sons of Antipater, the Indumian, were made Jetrarchs of 
of Judea. The following year Phasael took his own life, while Herod fled to 
Rome. (B. C. 40). There he obtained from the Roman Senate a grant of 
the kingdom of Judea, and an order from Mark Antony, addressed to the 
governors of Syria to aid him in obtaining possession of it. " Herod 
accordingly, assisted by Socius, the Roman general, laid seige to Jerusalem, 
which was taken with much bloodshed. Antigonus, Prince and High 
Priest, was beheaded by order of Mark Antony, and Herod put in full pos- 
session of the kingdom, B. C. 37. Herod assumed the right of appointing 
the High Priests, which excited the hatred of the Jewish nation. When 
Antony was overthrown by Augustus Caesar at the battle of Actium (B. C. 31), 
Herod, who was a special friend to Mark Antony, went immediately to 
Augustus and succeeded in having all his former rights and privileges con- 
firmed to him. Under Augustus imperial Rome commenced, B. C. 28. 
About the same time Herod, through an unfounded jealousy, put to death 
his beloved wife Mariamne ; and about twenty years later he condemned 
and put to death his sons, Alexander and Aristobulus." During these 



476 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

twenty years, B. C. 28 to B. C. 8., Herod was actively occupied in a variety 
of works of improvement. During this period Herod rebuilt the temple. 
Many of his works belonged to heathen practices, such as theatres, amphi- 
theatres, where Grecian and Roman games were introduced. In the 6th 
year before A. D. (Anno Domini), an angel appeared to Zachariah, as he 
was officiating in the temple, promising him a son named John, who was 
to be the forerunner of the Messiah; and about six months afterwards the 
angel appeared to the virgin Mary promising her that she should be the 
mother of Christ Himself, who should be circumcised by the name of 
Jesus." 

In concluding our narration of the historic outline of the ninth epoch 
of Hebrew transactions and current events, it will be as well to append a 
few supplementary thoughts, so far as they illustrate the character of the 
period. The ninth epoch, including five centuries, measured principally by 
a remarkable Messianic prophecy, that of the 70 weeks of Dan. ix. 24-27, 
which we shall now examine, so far as they cast any light upon the Jewish 
history of this period. In the first year of Darius, after the fall of Babylon 
by Cyrus, Jehovah's " shepherd," Daniel is occupied in the study of the 
prophecies of Jeremiah, relative to the duration of his people's captivity, 
that it was limited to seventy years. Learning from the comparison of 
events and dates, that the seventy years were about expiring, and that there 
did not yet appear to be any move among his captive countrymen he ap- 
plied himself to the God of Israel, by fasting and prayer, to favor his 
covenant people, and restore them to their native land. He had entire 
confidence in Jehovah, and, therefore, interceded for his people, the temple, 
and the once holy city Jerusalem. "'The more definite the promise, the 
stronger the faith, and the more heartfelt the prayer." Daniel at the same 
time reflected, that indeed the that and the when of the beginning, stood irre- 
vocably firm ; but the how and the when of completion, God had left free. 
Hence the ground for prayer. Daniel supplicates for the restoration of the 
Theocracy. The prayer is heard, and Gabriel, the interpreting angel is dis- 
patched from the throne of God swiftly and gives Daniel an assurance that 
his people, the temple, city and nation are to be restored, and that Judah's 
nationality would continue 70 weeks of years, or 490 years. This period is 
divided into three parts (1) seven weeks — 49 years, for the restoration of 
Jerusalem ; (2) sixty-two weeks, or 434 years, from that time to the an- 
nouncement of the Messiah by John the Baptist ; (3) one week, or seven 
years, for the ministry of Christ and His apostles. The point which we de- 
sire to make emphatic is this : God's word was pledged to their restitution 
and nationality, protracted through 490 years ; consequently, when their 
national existence, or their being as a family, was threatened, Jehovah, 
their God and Father, interfered directly, or. interposed human agency. 
Such was the case in the days of Esther, and under the Maccabees. Other- 
wise His enunciation, by the angel Gabriel, of the prolongation of their 
national life 490 years would have turned out a failure. This prophecy has 
in it an element of special interest, in this that it bridges the four centuries 
in which Judah was without an inspired prophet. It contains the Divine 



HEBREW PHASE. 477 

assurance that Judah should have a tribal existence and courts of civil 
jurisprudence, governors and princes till the prince of peace should come, 
the proper and legitimate heir to David's throne. 

God's purpose towards the Hebrew family can never fail. His will 
relative to that people as revealed to the prophets, and by them enunciated 
to " backsliding Israel " and '^treacherous Judah," shall never fail of accom- 
plishment. Though all other nations that held thfe Hebrews in severe 
bondage shall disappear. His beloved family, though corrected and pun- 
ished, shall never perish. " Thus saith Jehovah : If my covenant (be) not 
with day and night, (and if) I have not appointed the ordinances of 
heaven and earth ; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David, my 
servant (so) that I will not take (any) of his seed (to be) rulers over the 
seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity to re- 
turn, and have mercy on them." Jer. xxxiii. 25-26. And why should 
other nations show such a jealous hatred to the seed of Israel? Has not 
Judah furnished a Savior for the world; Ephraim a multitude of nations; 
and Manasseh a great nation ? The Hebrew race is filling the world with 
its fruits, truly blessed by the Lord God of Israel. 

10th Epoch of Hebrew History — From A. D. 1 to A. D. 70 ; or from 
the birth of Christ to the fall of Jerusalem. The 10th epoch of Hebrew 
history occupies a period, less than a century, yet it is crowded with great 
events. Of these the most noted are (1) the Advent of the Messiah ; (2) 
the Advent of the Holy Spirit (Comforter — Paraklete) ; (3) the destruction 
of Judah. (1) Under the first division we shall describe (a) Christ's birth ; 
(b) His genealogy; (c) His sayings, or doctrines; (d) His acts; (e) His cru- 
cifixion ; (/) His resurrection ; and (g) His ascension. (1) The second 
division will include the first proclamation of the Gospel ; and the forma- 
tion of the Christian Church, and its spread over the Roman world ; (2) 
the third division will contain an outline of Jewish history, from the 
birth of Christ to the fall of Jerusalem. In describing these events we 
shall consult clearness and brevity. 

(1) Birth of Christ. It is often asked, " Why did not Messiah come 
sooner ? " It might be satisfactory to some to answer, God, who gave Him, 
and sent Him into the world selected His own time. Other reasons might 
be adduced. The world, both heathen and Jewish, at that time was in a 
state to require some extraordinary personage. Gentile morals had fallen to 
zero ; and the morals of the Jews were below the freezing point. God's 
chosen people divided into three hostile sects, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the 
Essenes, distracted the order of religious worship. The Pharisees were the 
orthodox party, believers in fate and self-righteousness. The Sadducees were 
found among the higher orders, upper tens, as they would now be called. 
They taught (Acts xxiii. 8) " that there is no resurrection, neither angel, 
nor spirit." They were semi-infidels. The Essenes, according to Josephus, 
were a plain, simple, and virtuous people ; full of devotion and good works. 
They were very recluse. It is supposed that John the Baptist was educated 
among them. At the time of our Savior's birth, they were few, and with- 
out national influence. Devotion reduced to formalism, and the moral code 



478 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of Moses was quite obsolete. The prophets were read on the Sabbath days 
in the synagogues, but their predictions were a dead letter. A few were 
looking and waiting for the consolation of Israel. At the midnight of 
Jewish and Pagan corruptions, while the pent up fires of bloody revolu- 
tions are smouldering — a child is born of a virgin ; a noted birth, but in a 
manger. What personage is this that lies asleep on its mother's breast ? 
Let those that are competent give us their answers. " Where is He that is 
born King of the Jews? fo'r we have seen His star in the east and are come 
to worship Him." Matt. ii. 2. — Magi. "And there were in the same coun- 
try shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord 
shone round about them ; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said 
unto them. Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to ^11 people. For unto you is born this day in the city of 
David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this (shall be) a sign unto 
you : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a 
manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the 
heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will to men." Lu. ii. 8-15. This child — a 
helpless infant — a king, a Savior — Christ the Lord. My (God's) beloved 
Son in whom I (Jehovah) am well pleased. This infant is born of a 
virgin. Its birth and character had been enunciated by the prophets, 
and the manner of its incarnation fully described. 

" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, 
and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted, is 
God with us." Matt. i. 23; Is. vii. 14. The angel Gabriel, sent from 
God to the virgin Mary, said, " Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, 
and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, 
and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give 
unto Him the throne of His father David ; and He shall reign over the 
house of Jacob forever ; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." L-u. 
1. 26-30. This is a Divine enunciation before the infant is begotten. 
The problem here proposed for solution is this : Why such honors paid 
to an infant of a day ? Men are made great by their own works, and 
personally merit very distinguished honors. Some infants are honored 
because of their parentage, they being born of kings. But here is an 
infant " wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger," born of poor 
parentage, so far as could be outwardly discerned ; and yet the hosts of 
heaven break forth in songs of exultation at its birth. A star is hung 
in the heavens as a lamp to the wise men ; and when they find the in- 
fant in a stable, they fall down and worship Him, not the mother; and 
opening their royal treasures they presented them to the infant, gold and 
frankincense, and myrrh. What has an ordinary infant to do with such 
royal presents ? Why did the aged and devout Simeon take the little babe 
in his arms and give vent to such a flow of rapturous language ? Why 
did Anna, of another tribe (Asher), a widow of great age and piety, 
utter a prayer to the Lord over the infant, and talk of Him to all that 



HEBREW PHASE. 479 

looked for redemption in Jerusalem ? Why did the prophets and the angel 
Gabriel predict His birth? Would the natural, ordinary son of poor 
parents, born in poverty and under suspicious circumstances, have elicited 
such honors ? To believe it would require supernatural credulity. This 
problem admits of only one rational solution : that of the direct operation 
of the Divine agency on the human mind. It is quite unreasonable that 
an organism should be so constructed that its organic elements and func- 
tion should be beyond the reach and control of its Constructor. Man, 
made by Jehovah, must be under the absolute control of his Maker in 
every attribute. If man is able to control the movements of his own 
mechanism, however complicated, surely the Maker of all things should be 
allowed equal power at least. It was Divinity moving upon the minds of 
the prophets, the shepherds, the wise men ; upon the mind of Simeon and 
Anna that caused them to speak and act towards the infant Jesus, as they 
are recorded to have done. There was no special beauty or glory attached 
to the person of this infant. Nothing but direct revelation from Jehovah 
could in any manner possible have induced such extraordinary action. 
Why is this infant honored more than any other infant ? The solution we 
have given is reasonable and should be readily admitted. Mary was a poor 
girl ; and here in a manger is the mother of a child born under circum- 
stances peculiarly delicate to a lady of virtue. Joseph, now her husband, 
did not claim paternity to the babe just born. It required the instruction 
of an angel to establish Mary's innocence ; and yet her infant, in extreme 
helplessness, receives regal and Divine honors. These are honors in ad- 
vance. How true and forcible is the following solution : " When He bring- 
eth in the first begotten (born) into the world, He saith. And let all the 
angels of God worship Him." Heb. i. 6. Ps. xcvii. 7. 

(2) His Genealogy. — What we have stated relative to Jesus' birth in- 
troduces the problem relative to His genealogy, since the infant, being 
demonstrated to have about it some extraordinary attributes, must have 
some remarkable pedigree, as well as mission. Christ's history has been 
written by four authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Two, Matthew 
and Luke, give His pedigree. These genealogies are not alike. Expositors 
have reconciled their apparent difficulties. After carefully reading these 
genealogies, as given by Matthew and Luke, and explained by Bagster, 
Horn, Lardner, and the fathers, with many others, we give the following 
sketch : Christ's paternity is directly from God, as given by Matthew and 
Luke. Matthew says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: 
When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came to- 
gether, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her 
husband, being a just (man) and not willing to make a public example, 
was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these 
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, say- 
ing, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife; 
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall 
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall 
save His people from their sins. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, 



480 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his 
wife ; and knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born Son ; 
and he (Joseph— W.) called His name Jesus." Matt. i. 16, 21, 24, 25. This 
conception, being supernatural, is called in question, and Mary is accused 
of a want of chastity. It is admitted that God is the indirect agent of all 
ordinary conception; why may it not be conceded that He has the power 
to be the direct agent of a supernatural conception ? If God, by an extraor- 
dinary generation, created the first Adam, why not concede to Him the 
power to generate, supernaturally, the second Adam ? Jesus, to become in- 
carnate in order to make an atoning sacrifice for sin, had a body prepared 
Him by Jehovah, the man (Joseph) having no agency in the matter ; for 
Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born Son. If the 
first and second chapters of Matthew be genuine, the problem relative to 
Christ's legal genealogy and paternity are settled, if Matthew's veracity as 
a sacred historian is admitted. But the genuineness of those chapters have, 
in modern times, been called in question ; by what authority, except for 
doctrine relative to Christ's birth and genealogy, does not appear. We have 
the same reasons for rejecting the whole book as for rejecting as spurious 
the first two chapters. Professor Bauer, of Altorf, in Germany, boldly 
affirms that the narrative of the miraculous conception, recorded by Mat- 
thew and Luke, is a philosophical mythos or fable of later date ! ! ! 

The genuineness of the whole of Matthew's gospel is established by the 
best of testimony. The first two chapters of Saint Matthew's gospel are to 
be found in all the ancient manuscripts now extant, which are entire, as 
well as in many that have come down to us, mutilated by the hand of time, 
and also in all the ancient versions without exception. The genealogies 
sometimes being written separate did not make them spurious. The 
miraculous conception of our Savior is a vital fundamental doctrine of the 
Christian religion. This doctrine has been rejected by the German school 
of semi-infidels on the ground that a miracle is, in itself, impossible, and 
therefore to be discarded, however strong may be the proof Since the 
gospels are full of miracles they are to be rejected. A miracle is as cer- 
tainly a part of God's plan for executing His purposes as any ordinary acts, 
since the act should always be adapted to the exigencies of the case. Of 
the testimony of the fathers relative to these two chapters we might name a 
catalogue, one, however, we shall notice especially, Ignatius, who flourished 
A. D. 107. In his epistle to the Ephesians, he uses the following : " Now 
the virginity of Mary, and her delivery, were kept in secret from the prince 
of this world: as was also the death of our Lord; — three of the most nota- 
ble mysteries [of the gospel], yet done in secret by God. How then was 
[our Savior] manifested to the world? A star shone in heaven beyond all 
the other stars, and its light was inexpressible; and its novelty struck 
terror [into men's minds]." Ignatius was cotemporary with the apostles, 
and survived the evangelist John only six or seven years. We have in his 
testimony what amounts. to that of the apostles for the truth and authen- 
ticity of Saint Matthew's gospel. The three great infidels, the Emperor 
Julian (the apostate), of the fourth century. Porphyry of the third century. 



HEBEEW PHASE. 481 

and Celsus of the second century, did not contend, as our modern doctors 
do, that St. Matthew and St. Luke never wrote these accounts; but that in 
writing them they committed errors or related falsehoods. " Epiphanius 
expressly states that the followers of Cerinthus, who was cotemporary with 
John, ' preferred the gospel of St. Matthew on account of its genealogy.' " 
This testimony is conclusive. 

How are the difficulties in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke recon- 
ciled ? Horn, in his " Introduction to the Critical Study of the Bible," 
sums up the evidence in favor of the genuineness of the first two chapters of 
Matthew, as follows : " (1.) The commencement-of the third chapter of St. 
Matthew's gospel shows that something had preceded analagous to what we 
read in chapter ii. (2..) All the ancient manuscripts now extant, as well as 
all the ancient versions (two of which are of apostolic antiquity) contain 
the two first chapters. (3.) They are found in a genuine epistle of Ignatius, 
the only apostolic father who had occasion to refer to them. (4.) Justin 
Martyr, Hegesippus, and Clement of Alexandria, who all flourished in the 
second century, have referred to them, as also have Irenaeus and all the 
fathers who immediately succeeded him, and whose testimony is undis- 
puted. (5). Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, the most acute and inveterate 
enemies of the gospel, in the second, third and fourth centuries, likewise 
admitted them." " Thus we have one continued and unbroken series of 
testimony" of Christians as well as of persons inimical to the Christian 
faith, *' from the days of the apostles to the present time ; and in opposi- 
tion to this we find only a vague report of the state of a Hebrew. copy of 
St. Matthew's gospel said to be received amongst an obscure and unrecog- 
nized description of Hebrew Christians, who are admitted, even by the very 
writers, who claim the su|)port of their authenticity, to have mutilated the 
copy which they possessed, by removing the genealogy." Such is the evi- 
dence in favor of the fact that Matthew wrote these two chapters. With 
these remarks as to their genuineness, let us examine their genealogy as 
compared with that of Luke. We shall now examine the genealogy of 
Christ. On this subject we shall condense from the able works of Horn^ 
Lardner and Bagster. No uninspired work can be found more critical than 
these. On such points we lay no claim to originality. Our object is to 
present to the reader the besG possible information. On the apparent diffi- 
culties, Bagster remarks: 'Being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph 
(Luke iii", 23), Joseph being his mother's espoused husband, it was of 
course supposed by the world that Joseph must be his father; but this ex- 
pression strongly implies the contrary (the real father of Joseph was Jacob, 
Matt. i. 16.), but having married the daughter of Heli, and being perhaps 
adopted by him, he was called his son, and as such was entered into the 
public registers; Mary not being mentioned, because the Hebrews never 
permitted the name of a woman to enter their genealogical tables, but in- 
serted her husband as the son of him who was, in reality, but his father-in- 
law. Hence, it appears, th|^ St. Matthew, who wrote principally for the 
Jews, traces the pedigree of Jesus Christ from Abraham, through whom 
the promise was given to the Jews, to David, and from David, through the 
31 



482 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

line of Solomon, to Jacob the father of Joseph, the reputed or legal father of 
Christ ; and that St. Luke, who wrote for the Gentiles, extends his genealogy 
upwards, from Heli the father of Mary, through the line of Nathan to 
David, and from David to Abraham, and from Abraham to Adam, who was 
the immediate "son of God " by creation, and to whom the promise of the 
Savior was given in behalf of himself and all his posterity. . The two 
branches a descent from David by Solomon and Nathan, being thus united 
in the persons of Mary and Joseph, Jesus, the son of Mary, reunited in 
Himself all the blood privileges and rights of the whole family of David, in 
consequence of which He is emphatically called "The Son of David." 
Adam is said to be born " without father or mother." Luke iii., 23-38. So 
says Dr. Lightfoot. If God made inorganic earth into the first Adam to be 
a ruler over this earth during its humiliation, it is quite reasonable that He 
should form out of organic clay (Mary), the second Adam to have domin- 
ion over the earth in the age of its exaltation. That Luke gives the pedi- 
gree of Mary, the real mother of Christ, may be collected from the following 
reasons: (1.) The Angel Gabriel, at the annunciation, told the virgin that 
" God would give her divine Son the throne of his father David " (Luke i. 
32) ; and this was necessary to be proved, by her genealogy afterwards. (2.) 
Mary is called by the Jews ^'^Nni "The daughter of Eli," and by the 
early Christian writers, " the daughter of Joakim and Anna." But Joakim 
and Eliakim (as being derived from the names of God, tl)tl''j Ye-ho-wah, 
and ^i^ Ml.) are sometimes interchanged (2 Chron. xxxv. 4). Eli, there- 
fore, or Heli, is the abridgement of Eliakim. Nor is it of any consequence 
that the rabbins called him ^'^V, instead of ^'7K, as the aspirates Aleph and 
tsadee are frequently interchanged. A similar case in point occurs else- 
where in genealogy. After the Babylonish captivity, the two lines of Solo- 
mon and Nathan, the son of David, unite in the generations of Salathiel 
and Zerubbabel, and thence diverge again in the sons of the latter, Abiud 
and Resa. (Smith thinks that Resa is not the name of a person. — W.) 
Hence, as Salathiel in Matthew, was the son of Jechoniah, or Jehoiachin, 
who was carried away into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, so in Luke, Sala- 
thiel must have been the grand-son of Neri, by his mother's side. The 
evangelist himself has critically distinguished the real from the legal gene- 
alogy, by a parenthetical remark : I-qaouq mv ul6g djc; evu/jlcSsto uluq Iwarjil' [a// 'wv- 
Tioq wl'o?] TOO HX£\. " Jesus — being (as was reputed) the son of Joseph, (but in 
reality) the son (grand-son. — W) of Heli." Eli — Eliakim or Joakim— or 
his grand-son by the mother'' s side ; for so should the ellipses involved in the 
parenthesis be supplied. This interpretation in the genealogy of St. Luke's 
gospel, if it be admitted, removes at once every difficulty ; and (as Bishop 
Gleig has truly remarked, " it is so natural and consistent with itself, that, 
we think, it can hardly be rejected, except by those who are determined, 
that seeing they will not see, and hearing they will not understand." 
Thus speaks Thomas Hartwell Home in his Introduction to the Critical 
Study of the Bible, Vol I. p. 533. 

We have now occupied about as much space as can be devoted to the 
birth and genealogy of Christ. The remarkable events preceding and sur- 



HEBEEW PHASE. 483 

rounding the very infancy of his incarnation prove the babe of Bethlehem 
the son of Mary. His genealogy demonstrates its claim to be the royal 
promised Seed of David, which was declared such by the Angel Gabriel; 
who was also the seed of Abraham; the seed of the woman who was to 
bruise the serpent's head. His generation in flesh (for the Word was made 
flesh and dwelt among us) and His birth of a virgin, and in the place 
(Bethlehem) all pointed out His title to the Messiaship of the prophetic 
predictions. God claimed the paternity of this babe; and made the enun- 
ciation more than once publicly. Yet the intimate nature of this infant 
no one then knew nor yet knows but the Father. What we are anxious to 
impress upon the reader is this, that this infant, whose birth we have 
noticed, is not the real son of Joseph. (1.) He declares, after the angel had 
made known to Him the character of the child to be born, that he knew 
her not till she had brought forth this son, whom, according to his instruc- 
tions, he names Jesus— -Savior. All the other sons of Adam, Abraham and 
David, were introduced to the world in the natural way ; but this Adam 
the second, is the Lord from heaven. The true seed had as truly a super- 
natural birth as that of the first Adam. Who has not noticed as the Jews 
did, the wonderful contrast between Jesus and Joseph's children by the 
same mother ? 

(3) The Life of Christ as exhibited in His words, deeds, and general 
deportment, will be our theme in order. An infant of such wide-spread 
and exalted notoriety, could not fail in His living development. He must 
make a man of extraordinary powers. We have a record of one act of His 
childhood. At the age of twelve years, when a mere stripling of a boy, 
without any schooling as life experience (Jno. ii. 15.) His parents took 
Him to Jerusalem, to the feast of the passover; for, at that age youth were 
brought under the law and were obliged to attend temple worship, and were 
called " sons of the covenant." "And when they had fulfilled the days, as 
they returned, the Child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph 
(not His natural father — W.) and His mother knew not (of it). But they 
supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and 
they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they 
found Him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And 
it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting 
in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 
And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 
And when they saw Him, they were amazed ; and His mother said unto 
Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us ? behold, thy father (Joseph, 
His reputed father — W.) and I have sought Thee sorrowing. And He said 
unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not tnat I must be about 
my Father's (God's — W.) business?" The expression "about," or "at my 
Father's business " was not understood by His parents. He could not have 
referred to His reputed father Joseph, since he had transacted his business 
at Jerusalem, i^nd was returning, and they did not suppose that He spoke 
of God's business. The Evangelists have recorded thirty-three miracles of 
Christ, among which this event is not reckoned ; and yet, it stands truly 



484 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

among the first of the extraordinary transactions of His life. It was noto- 
rious among the Jews, that Jesus was without human learning. On one 
occasion, during His public ministry, after He had closed His parabolic 
instructions, He went into His own country and taught in the Jewish 
synagogue; and the people were astonished, and said, "Whence hath this 
(man) this wisdom and (these) mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's 
son ? Is not His mother called Mary ? and His brethren, James, and Joses, 
and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? 
Whence then hath this (man) all these things ? And they were offended 
in Him." Matt. xiii. 54-57. They were offended at the contrast. We do 
not hesitate to affirm that this interview of Jesus with the Jewish doctors, 
in the temple, has no parallel in the world's history. Cyrus, the Persian, 
whose early history is given by Xenophon, bears perhaps the most striking 
resemblance, in his early childhood ; still, that resemblance, imperfect and 
distant as it is, was owing to the fact that he was God's "Shepherd" and 
a type of Christ. (Is. xliv. 28). Yet Cyrus had every possible advantage, 
as to his earthly parentage and human learning. That a stripling of a boy, 
at the age of twelve years, without letters (Jno. vii. 15.), of poor parents, 
consequently without any natural advantage, should, in Jerusalem, the 
"City of the Great King," and in the temple, held in such reverence by the 
Jewish nation, whose external shown like a silver mountain, leave his 
parents, and remain behind, a stranger boy, in a strange city filled with a 
strange people, and, instead of wandering about its streets as boys do out 
of childish curiosity, should repair to God's sanctuary, take His seat 
amongst the learned doctors (Rabbi) of the nation, and as their peer in 
age, dignity, and prudent wisdom and sacred knowledge, should begin His 
Catechism, may be reckoned a miracle of the highest order or be accounted 
for, in His answer to His parents (" Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business?) or as He said afterwards, "My doctrine is not mine, but 
His that sent me." Jno. vii. 16. Why such a vast difi'erence between 
Jesus and Joseph and Mary's other children ? The Evangelists have given 
us the only rational solution. They had not the same father. The Bible 
calls Jesus a man. So He is ; a supplementary man ; more than a man ; 
" the man Christ Jesus.'^ 1 Tim. ii. 5. The last Adam, with the additional 
attributes of Anointed Savior. 

The last Adam (is) the Lord from heaven incarnated for human re- 
demption. "Who, being in the form of God (Jno. i. 1. 2. ; Col. i. 15) thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God (Jno. v. 18.) : But made Himself of 
no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant (Lu. xxii. 27.), 
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a 
man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross." Phil. ii. 6. 7. 8. "On returning home, He remained 
subject to His parents about seventeen years, working as a carpenter, in- 
creasing in wisdom, and stature (age), and in favor with God and man.'' 
Lu. ii. 5. 52. Such seemed to be the nature, growth and education of the 
man Christ Jesus during the thirty years of His life of humiliation. In- 
stead of being taught letters and reared at the feet of a Jewish Gamaliel, 



HEBREW PHASE. 485 

and instructed in the traditions and national practices, He is kept at the 
carpenter's bench, His parents being too poor to afford Him a liberal edu- 
cation. Here, in His subjection, to humble toil, is another point of great 
interest in the training of Jesus. He was not allowed to enter upon the 
exercise of His public ministry till about thirty years of age. If His 
preparatory education had been in the walks of human learning, His 
doctrines would have been attributed to His profound knowledge, acquired 
in the schools of men. Coming as He did, from the work-bench, without 
having attended school a day. His knowledge and wisdom had to be ac- 
counted for in some other way. That Jesus should come from His position 
among the learned doctors, and hide His divine powers, in the humble 
occupation of a poor man's under cai'ijcnter, for seventeen years, unknown 
to the world, is another feature of His life worthy of profound consideration. 
It cannot be explained on natural principles. A mind so developed at the 
age of twelve years, and still expanding, could. not have been chained 
seventeen years to the work-bench, especially as it was hungry for divine 
food. Neither Joseph nor His mother could have held Him. His mission 
alone (which required riper years) restrained Him. He came not to do 
His own will, but that of His heavenly Father. It is said of Jesus that He 
was "Mighty in Word and Deed." 

Let us now examine some of the sayings of Jesus, after He entered 
upon the work of His ministry. Christ said of His doctrine (when the 
Jews were offended at His wonderful knowledge in His temple instructions). 
"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be 
of God or (whether) I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh 
his own glory; but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is 
true, and no unrighteousness in him." Jno. vii. 17. 18. Jesus here pre- 
sents another extraordinary feature in His character, and one that follows 
Him through His entire ministry : A man without human ambition. "I 
come to do Thy will, God." Heb. x. 7. " I seek not mine own will." 
Jno. V. 30, " I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will." Jno. 
vi. 38. " Not my will but Thine be done." Lu. xxii. 42. No selfishness 
in Jesus. This feature alone was sufficient to demonstrate His divine 
character. For no man is without more or less selfishness in his acts ; but 
Jesus said : " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." 

Let us now examine some of His teachings, whether human or divine. 
We cannot do more than to notice a few elements that are seen in all His 
instructions, samples of teaching, of works, and of His deportment, during 
the Z^ years of His personal confirmation of the covenant. At the age of 
about thirty years, He entered upon the work of His public ministry. 
What worldly training had Jesus to qualify Him for the duties of His high 
and responsible micsion? He assumed to be the "great Teacher like unto 
Moses," to whom all were commanded to listen. What instructions had 
He received to enable Him to be such a teacher? What Normal shool had 
He visited? Who were His professors of natural, moral, and political 
science ? What drill had He received to fit Him to occupy the seat of the 
anti-typical Moses? The typioal law-giver had a royal education. Brought 



486 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

up as the son of Pharoah's daughter, "Being learned in all the wisdom of 
the Egyptians ; (and consequently) He was mighty in words and in deeds." 
Acts vii. 22. Jesus had no such learning; but was, in the language of this 
age, an obscure, illiterate, poor young man without any worldly pretensions. 
"A root out of dry ground, without form (of royalty — W.) or comeliness, 
and without any attractive beauty." Such a personage steps forth upon 
the Hebrew theatre to teach and do in human flesh, far more than ever had 
been taught and done by all the noble, the learned, and the wise of the 
earth. The agent and the mission presented a painful inequality, (a) The 
first sample of His teaching which will be presented, is called "Christ's 
Sermon on the Mount." As the sermon is familiar to our reader, we shall 
direct attention to some of its noted thoughts. As a whole, the thought is 
unique; it stands without a peer. It is not a production of unaided human 
thought. The human mind, at that age of the world, was a novice to such 
ideas. They were infinitely beyond the world as to morals and practices. 
There never had been a school, Hebrew or Pagan, where such a system of 
moral action had been taught. The seven empires of the world were stran- 
gers to such springs of human action. Even the Hebrews in the purest 
state, were strangers to many of its enunciations and injunctions. Let us 
view some of its items. ' (6) Its beatitudes reverse human ideas and ordi- 
nary actions. The nine classes are either persecuted, dishonored, or lightly 
esteemed. His corrections of Jewish traditions, practices, and His exposi- 
tions of the law, are profound. The treatment of enemies is the reverse of 
human practice. War on our enemies, and their extermination, are the 
breathings of the human heart. There is scarcely an ordinary sentiment 
in the entire sermon. Who can read this discourse, without exclaiming 
with the Jews, "Whence hath this (man) this wisdom?" It is very certain 
that He never obtained the thoughts from any earthly teacher, and to sup- 
pose that the doctrines originated in the mind of Jesus, as a mere man (the 
natural Son of Joseph and Mary), would be to admit as great a difliculty 
and miracle, as to allow the truth of His miraculous conception, and God 
to be the Father of those doctrines, as Jesus Himself declares. His words 
were uttered (c) with authority and power. The people noticed His man- 
ner of address. At the close of this sermon " The people were astonished 
at His doctrine : For He taught them as (one) having authority and not 
as the scribes." Matt. vii. 28. 29. Whence came such self-possession and 
confidence? He knew well that the sentiments of the sermon were new 
and very unpopular. Any other minister, a novice (humanly speaking) as 
Jesus at that time, would, under similar circumstances, have acted like a 
scribe. Mark the power of His words : Their power over men, over demons, 
over nature. See how the Jewish teachers were affected at His voice. The 
demons obeyed His voice; the dead heard it and obeyed. When He ad- 
dressed the storm, there was a great calm. Such power is not inherent in 
ordinary mortals. It was strictly true, "Never man spoke like this man." 
(4) Let us see if ever man exerted the same power as this Man. Of 
the thirty-three acts of Jesus recorded as miracles, thirty-two are works of 
benevolence, one is the execution of a curse ^ He blasts the fig tree because 



HEBREW PHASE. 487 

of its persistent barrenness. The miracles of Moses were the execution of 
judgment. The departments over which Jesus exercised control, in work- 
ing His great power, were the physical world, as turning water into wine; 
vastly increasing the amount of food to feed the many thousands ; stilling 
the winds and the sea ; and taking life from the fig tree. This power will 
not be claimed to be inherent in any ordinary man. 

(3) Jesus had entire control over the world of unclean spirits. Four 
remarkable instances recorded : (a b) two at Capernaum, (c) one at Gadara, 
and (d) one at Mount Tabor. These were the serpent's seed, but fled be- 
fore the "seed of the woman." "Jesus, we know Thee who Thou art, the 
Holy One of God." This province of Jesus' dominion affords ample testi- 
mony as to the nature of this Son of Mary. He had the department of 
human diseases under His control. His attested cures of fevers, leprosy, 
palsy, blindness, deafness, withered hands, dropsy, and all others afflicted 
with divers diseases and torments fully attest this His miraculous author- 
ity ; we say miraculous, for the cures were immediate and perfect. 

(4) The fourth department of Christ's power is that of death and 
hades. Three noted cases of resurrection demonstrates His absolute con- 
trol over the dead, (a) The son of the widow of Nain ; (6) the daughter of 
Jairus ; (c) and Lazarus of Bethany. These were all remarkable and pub- 
lic ; about these there could be no deception. Of these the resurrection of 
Lazarus was of the greatest notoriety, on account of his age, the length of 
time that he was under the dominion of death, and the admission of the 
fact by the Jews, who sought to kill Lazarus, because it produced many 
believers. Even Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night 
and said, " Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God : for no 
man can do those miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him." 
John iii. 1. The world of mind and matter were at His bidding. All His 
sayings are pressed into the space of 3^ years. Such pressure on mind and 
body clearly demonstrates His exalted nature. John said, after writing the 
life of Christ, " Many other things did Jesus, which if they should be writ- 
ten every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the 
books that should be written. Amen." John xxi. 25. Such activit}^ of 
thought and muscle, as was required to produce all His addresses, prayers, 
conversations and parables, and to supply all the exhaustive vitality for 
His miracles, does not belong to any child of the first Adam; God must be 
with him. 

(5) His deportment, both towards God and man, was equally unique. 
All admit that Jesus was a man. The point in dispute is the one urged by 
the Jews, "For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy: and 
because that Thou, being a man (only — W.) makest Thyself God." John 
X. 33. " Calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God." John 
V. 18. What we say then, tends to solve the problem, not of " the man," 
but of " the man Christ Jesus," the supplementary man. He is a man, it is 
true, but He is more than a man. 

What we aim to demonstrate is this, that it requires more credulity to 
believe that a natural son of Joseph and Mary, the brother of James and 



488 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Joses, and Simon and Judas, brought up at the carpenter's bench, without 
any learning, could say what He said, and do what He did, than to believe 
that He was the Son of God, and, consequently, that these were the legiti- 
mate fruits of His exalted nature. He was shown to be the Son of God by 
His resurrection. Such is the more natural solution of this mysterious 
problem. 

We shall now follow Jesus in His intercourse with God and man. His 
words and deeds, in every instance, were those of an affectionate, obedient 
and dutiful Son of Him whom He called His Father, even the Almighty. 
His life, as given by the four Evangelists, are full of the most convincing 
evidence to establish this proposition. His great intimacy is demonstrated 
by His prayers in John xvii. That inimitable prayer, so distinctly deline- 
ates His relationship to God and man, as also His character and mission, 
that we shall certainly be justified in presenting a copy. "These words 
spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said. Father, the hour is 
come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: as Thou hast 
given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many 
as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know 
Thee the only true God (heathen gods being nothing — W.), and Jesus 
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have 
finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, 
glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with 
Thee before the world was. I have manifested Thy name unto the men 
which Thou gavest me out of the world : Thine they were, and Thou gavest 
them me ; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all 
things whatsoever Thou hast given me are of Thee. For I have given unto 
them the words which Thou gavest me; and they have received (them) 
and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed 
that Thou didst send me. I pray for them : I pray not for the world, but 
for them which Thou hast given me; for they are Thine. And all mine 
are Thine, and Thine are mine ; and I am glorified in them. And now I 
am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. 
Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given 
me, that they may be one, as we (are). While I was with them in the 
world, I kept them in Thy name : those that Thou gavest me I have kept, 
and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture 
might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee ; these things I speak in the 
world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given 
them Thy word ; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of 
the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest 
take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the 
evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify 
them through the truth : Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent me into 
the world, even so have I sent them into the world. And for their sakes I 
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou Father, (art) in 



HEBREW PHASE. 489 

me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may 
believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest me I 
have given them ; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, 
and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world 
may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved 
me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me 
where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me : 
for Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. righteous 
Father, the world hath not known Thee : but I have known Thee, and 
these have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto 
them Thy name, and will declare (it) ; that the love wherewith Thou hast 
loved me may be in them, and I in them." In such an affectionate and 
familiar manner did Jesus address His Father. The thoughts and the 
familiar breathing declare the relationship. No one can carefully examine 
the wording and spirit of this prayer without profound convictions of the 
exalted nature of its author. Compare this with the model prayer given 
for the use of His disciples. The thoughts of each are well adapted to the 
purposes for which they were uttered. The one is a model for the use of 
the disciples of Jesus; the other is the heart breathings of Jesus Himself, 
when closing His mission. The one in John xvii. is not appropriate as a 
whole to the use of any other being. Christians cannot pray it. It carries 
with it the holy breathings of a divine nature. Its language and its author 
are of another world. His mission is expiring, and He is rendering His 
report supplemented by certain requests. The terms in which it is couched 
identify its heaven-born original. His eyes uplifted He exclaims, " Father," 
*' Thy Son," " Hast given me power over all flesh," "0 Father," "0 right- 
eous Father," " The glory I had with Thee before the world was". These are 
utterances of a son and companion. Let us notice His deportment towards 
His own people, the language He uses in conversation, in His addresses, in 
His parabolic instructions. His mode of address was neither timid nor 
bold. Self-reliant, His language comes with authority. To His enemies, 
His reproof was terrible. His conduct in the temple suited the Lord Mes- 
siah rather than a poor illiterate young man of 32 winters. "And Jesus 
went into the temple of God (once His — W.), and cast out all them that 
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money- 
changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them. It is 
written my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it 
a den of thieves." Matt. xxi. 12. 13. In His private intercourse with His 
most intimate friends, such as the family of Lazarus, His deportment is 
that of a pure and holy being, no " small talk," neither is there any levity. 
He weeps, but is never seen to laugh. His secret moments were occupied 
in holy converse with His Father. In uttering His parables, and when 
performing His wonderful miracles, He manifested that He is the extraor- 
dinary person. It was only on the mount of transfiguration, in a vision, 
before three special witnesses^ Peter, James, and John, that His future glory 
shone forth, of which Peter thus speaks, "For we have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and com- 



490 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For 
He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a 
voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we (James, 
John, and myself — W.) heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount." 
2 Peter i. 16. 17. 18. 

We have given in our hurried sketch a brief outline of this extraordi- 
nary personage, who showed Himself to the Jews as their anticipated Mes- 
siah, Son of God. He had established His claims to Messiahship, and to 
the throne of David, by His " mighty words and deeds." Never had man 
spoken or acted like Him. When John the baptist sent messengers to 
Jesus who said " John Baptist hath sent us unto Thee, saying, Art Thou 
He that should come ? or look we for another? And at the same hour He 
cured many of (their) infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and 
unto many (that were) blind He gave sight. Then Jesus answering said 
unto them. Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and 
heard ; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the 
deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached." Luke 
vii. 20. 21. 22. Jesus knew that His works were sufficient to carry convic- 
tion to John, who knew what were to be doctrines and acts of the Messiah. 
Objectors of all ages have questioned the accomplishment of these works 
for want of sufficient testimony. Since no amount of testimony is suffi- 
cient to establish the truth of a miracle, such a position is faulty in many 
ways, (a) It is a violation of the law of testimony, (h) It mistakes the 
character of a miracle. What is a misracle ? It is the exercise of extra- 
ordinary power, either to intensify or suspend usual laws of nature. A 
natural law is simply the mode of Jehovah's action. Laws are not in- 
herent in matter, and independent of a living Creator. A law of nature is 
simply a mode of God's action. He does not create a vast machinery and 
leave it to manage itself. He is a creating, moving, and governing agent of 
the universe, as a whole and of all its parts. In the creation of the earth 
with all its formations and organisms, the Creator had a purpose and plans 
of developing that great unity of purpose. Man was created to be the 
visible agent by which the earth in its living population was to be gov- 
erned. The first man failing in His rule, had another promised, called the 
" seed of the woman." The second Adam had to have a nature suited to 
His work. The work required of Him was extraordinary, calling for un- 
usual or extraordinary powers. His official work demanded corresponding 
abilities. 

The position is simply this : The miracles of Christ are an element in 
God's original plan (in one of its departments) to carry out His purpose. 
God is not a man that He had to change plans to suit circumstances, in 
progressive developments, over which He had no control. Our meaning 
will be better understood by an illustration. Let us take a specimen of 
human effort as carried out by machinery ; time pieces, such as clocks, 
watches and chronometers. They are all various plans devised by man for 
one purpose, that of measuring time accurately. That being the object 



HEBREW PHASE. 491 

proposed machinists set themselves at work for its acc'omplishment. The 
thoughts and acts of one develops a clock, of another a watch, of a third 
a chronometer. See what a variety of machinery for the accomplishment 
of one purpose. Let us now examine their movements. The clock notes 
the seconds, minutes, quarters, hours, days and months, without looking 
into the works of the clock, but simply at its face. We conclude that the 
plan of its maker was to mark those six divisions of time, and that the 
works of the clock are calculated and arranged for those divisions. Who 
would contend that the machinery within it, had no wheels with its cogs ; 
no such divisions in its mechanism, as to enable it to mark the months, 
days, hours, quarters, minutes and seconds, when the fact was on its 
face, and its time-keeping before his eyes ? His saying that this time- 
keeping attribute is contrary to former experience, would not alter the 
fact. Every reasonable person would say, It does mark those six di- 
visions of time ; therefore, that was in the plan of its maker, and its inter- 
nal parts are made and arranged to produce that result. It is part of the 
original thought. So of the watch and chronometer. After the fall of 
man, human redemption is revealed as a part of God's purpose. His plan 
for its accomplishment is the gift of His only begotten Son ; His incarna- 
tion ; life of humiliation ; His mighty " words and deeds," necessary to 
produce faith and obedience, requisite to salvation. The Jews had sunk so 
low (He came to His own and was rejected) in practice of morals, and in 
their ideas of the character of their promised Messiah (they looking for a 
mighty prince of the house of David), that nothing less than Divine power 
manifested in human flesh could wake them from their dreamy repose. 
The Almighty certainly knew, ages in advance, that such would be their 
degraded, lifeless condition, and, therefore, adapted His plans to the exi- 
gences of the case. To deny this is to rob the universe of an omniscient, 
all-powerful, superintending Deity. We have in the predictions of the 
holy prophets abundant proof that Messiah, in His special character, was in 
the Divine plan ; else how could they have described His character and 
surroundings with such accurate minuteness. Read Isaiah, as we find His 
description in his fifty-third chap., so distinctly and accurately is Jesus of 
Nazareth there described that Porphyry, a noted infidel of the third century, 
took the absurd position that that chapter was written after the death of 
Christ. Absurd, for the reason that Porphyry well knew that the fifty- 
third chapter had always formed a part of Isaiah's prophecies, as held by 
the Jews, such enemies of Jesus, that they instigated His death. Por- 
phyry also rejected the writings of Daniel, because of his prophecy of the 
seventy weeks. The great Law-giver, Moses, was familiar with Messiah's 
life and character. So were Job, David in his Psalms, and all the 
prophets, so that it may be truly said, " The testimony of Jesus is the 
spirit of prophecy." Rev. xix. 10. How did Moses, Job, David, and the 
prophets know any thing about Jesus of Nazareth, except through a di- 
rect communication from God ? and how could Jehovah reveal that which 
did not exist as parts of an original plan to carry into execution His 
own immutable purpose? Such must be the inevitable convictions of 



492 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

sound reasonings. That we may be fully understood, allow us another illus- 
tration. The Centennial Exposition, of 1876, at Philadelphia, afifords a 
very appropriate example, explanatory of our position. The motor of some 
acres of machinery, was a fixed engine of great power, called Corliss. With 
this engine all the immense field of lesser machines, with an endless variety 
of action, had connexion. When it moved they moved ; when it stopped 
they were dead of necessity. The point at issue is this : was that com- 
pound communicated power the result of some chance combination, or did 
it originate from the brain of some person, who had constructed this plan 
to carry out his purpose ? But one answer is in any manner reasonable. 
These movements and mechanic actions, are the parts of a previously ar- 
ranged plan. Now the Almighty is the Motor of the Universe. The 
worlds of matter, of intellect, and of morals are objects of His creation and 
supreme control. In His formation of the earth with its infinite variety of 
living organisms, He evidently arranged all things according to the im- 
mutability of His purpose. His plan of redemption of a fallen race and 
by His Son as the Redeemer, existed in His mind from the beginning. 
The part of the world's drama assigned to the " seed of the woman," had 
its previous assignment in this Divine arrangement. The work to be done, 
whether individual or national, had its agents adapted to the work. For 
wise purposes, inscrutable to man, God saw fit to communicate parts of His 
plan to His servants, the prophets, centuries in advance of the agents or- 
dained to carry His plans into execution. We conclude, therefore, that 
miracles are as truly a part of God's original plan, as any ordinary act, 
since they are all essentially necessary. We conclude that the declaration 
that miracle is in its nature impossible, and that of the fool, " no God," are 
synonymous. 

(6) The death of Christ. The doctrines and works of Jesus were so 
offensive to the Jewish nation that they said, Away with Him. They 
conspire against His life and He was executed on the cross. Christ's 
death was voluntary, Jesus said, ''Therefore, doth my Father love me, be- 
cause I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it 
from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my 
Father." Jno. x. 17-18. 

Pilate said unto Him (Jesus — W.), " Speakest Thou not unto me ? 
Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to 
release Thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power (at all) 
against me, except it were given thee from above ; therefore, he that de- 
livered me unto thee hath the greater sin." Jno. xix. 10-11. '' Without 
shedding of blood is no remission." Heb. ix. 22. Christ said, " fools, 
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! Ought not 
Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And be- 
ginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the 
scriptures the things concerning Himself." Lu. xxiv. 25, 26, 27. What 
sin, then, had the Jews in putting Him to death? Peter said, " Ye men of 
Israel hear these words : Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 



HEBREW PHASE. 493 

you by miracles, and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the 
midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; Him, being delivered by the de- 
terminate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked 
hands have crucified and slain." Acts ii. 22-23. Christ's death was, there- 
fore, voluntary and for the remission of sins. The Jews manifested their 
hatred to Jesus even after His death. They had instigated His cruci- 
fixion , had Him put into the sepulchre, with a Roman seal upon it, and a 
guard set to hold Him there by preventing His disciples from stealing 
away His body. They well knew that Jesus had predicted His own 
resurrection on the third day. They had seen that Jesus had lain down 
His life. He said that He had power to take it again. This great 
calamity to them they had fully resolved to prevent. With all their 
caution, and with the power of the Roman Empire at their bidding, the 
sun of the third day cast its exultant rays into an open, deserted tomb. 
This fatal " error " had occurred, but by what power they knew not. The 
historian, Matthew, says, " That in the midst of a great earthquake, the 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the 
stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, 
and his raiment white as snow ; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, 
and became as dead (men). This angel's explanation to the women solved 
the problem of the open sepulchre. I know that ye seek Jesus, which was 
crucified, He is not here ; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place 
where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen 
from the dead ; and, behold. He goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall 
ye see Him ; lo, I have told you. And in their way Jesus met them say- 
ing, All hail. And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshiped 
Him." 

About this time some of the watch, who fled from the sepulchre, came 
into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were 
done. It appears that the watch, at first, made a true report to the chief 
priests. An assembly of the elders was immediately convoked to decide 
upon some immediate action before this alarming report should reach the 
governor. One opinion was unanimous in the counsel, and the hat passes 
and the money rushes in. " They gave large money unto the soldiers, say- 
ing, Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole Him (away) while we 
slept. And if this (the true story and the sleeping — W.) comes to the gov- 
ernor's ears we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money 
and did as they were taught ; and this saying is commonly reported among 
the Jews until this day." Matt, xxviii. This lying bribery has been fatal 
to those Jews that said, "His blood (be) on us and on our children," as we 
shall see in their future history. Jesus Christ our Lord "was made of the 
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared (to be) the Son of God 
with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the 
dead." Rom. i. 3-4. 

(7) The resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord established His claims 
to Messiahship since the spirit of Jehovah, the Almighty, would not have 
been sent to quicken an impostor, hence the rising of Christ from the dead, 



494 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

and those that are His at His coining is a fundamental truth of the Gospel. 
Paul says, " I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, 
which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are 
saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have be- 
lieved in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also re- 
ceived, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures ; and 
that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to 
the Scriptures." 1 Cor. xv. 1-4. Was not to see corruption which gener- 
ally takes place before the fourth day. Ps. xvi. 10. It was necessary for 
Christ to die, since by His blood was the remission of sins ; and that as a 
high priest He was required to enter heaven itself. The truth of Christ's 
resurrection is as fully established as human and Divine testimony can do it. 

(8) His ascension will now be considered. The fact itself and the 
reason of it will be briefly noticed. Jesus was not taken up into heaven 
till after the expiration of forty days. These forty days were occupied in 
giving His disciples many infallible proofs of His being alive, and also in 
giving them instructions in the nature of the kingdom of God. On the 
subject of Christ's reign, the time and circumstances, they still seem to be 
in the dark ; for they ask, " Wilt Thou at this time restore again the king- 
dom to Israel ? " Acts i. 6. The calling of the Gentiles did not seem to be 
understood ; hence Christ answers, After the Holy Spirit comes upon you, 
giving you power to execute your mission, ye shall be my witnesses, both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth. These forty days, therefore, were necessary for the in- 
struction of His apostles, both as to the fact of His resurrection, and the 
nature of His kingdom. 

This fact of Christ's ascension is attested by His apostles, who went into 
Galilee to meet Him, as Jesus had appointed. Having during forty days 
received all necessary instructions, they are prepared for the last scene of 
the drama. " While they beheld. He was taken up ; and a cloud received 
Him out of their sight. And they looked steadfastly towards heaven as 
He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which said, 
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus, 
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts i. 2, 12. This is the testimony of 
Jesus' ascension, as explained by the two messengers. That He entered 
the anti-typical temple and was accepted, is proved by the Advent of the 
Comforter, which transpired. It may be said that these witnesses were in- 
terested and therefore their testimony should be received with caution. On 
this point it is, perhaps, as well to say : (1) They had every opportunity to 
know the fact; (2) their subsequent conduct was such as to demonstrate 
their faith in the certainty of the event. The necessity of His ascension 
is distinctly seen in the office which, after His resurrection. He was 
required to execute, that of the anti-typical High Priesthood. The type 
required that the death of Jesus should be on earth, but that the blood 
should be offered in the anti-typical temple, heaven itself Paul says: " For 
if He were on earth. He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests 



HEBREW PHASE. 495 

that offer gifts according to the law." Heb. viii., 4. As Christ came not 
to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them (Matt. v. 17), He 
could not officiate as a priest on earth. Hence He said, " Ought not Christ 
to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory ?" Luke xxix. 
26. We have now followed Jesus through the execution of His prophetic 
office (leaving chosen persons to carry it out) and have seen Him ascend in- 
to the heavens for the purpose of discharging the duties of his priestly 
office in the most holy place, where He is now sitting on the right hand of 
His Father, the unity of our subject requires that we (2) return to notice 
the second great event in the tenth epoch of Hebrew history the Advent of 
the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Christ said, " If I go not away the Com- 
forter (Paraklete) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send 
Him unto you." John xvi., 7. This Comforter, sent by the Father and 
Son, was to teach the apostles all things, and bring all things to their 
remembrance, whatsoever Christ had told them. Jesus instructed them to 
tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on 
high. When they had seen Jesus ascend they returned unto Jerusalem 
from the mount called Olives, and went into an upper room. Luke describes 
the Advent of the Holy Comforter as follows : " When the day of Pentecost 
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly 
there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled 
all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost (Gust or breathing. — W), and began to 
speak with other tongues as the Spirit (breathing. — W) gave them utter- 
ance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of 
every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multi- 
tude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard 
them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, 
saying one to another: "Behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? 
And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born ? 
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and 
in Judea, and Capadocia, in Pontus and Asia (Minor. — W), Phrygia, and 
Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers 
of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak 
in our tongues the wonderful works of God." And they were all amazed, 
and were in doubt, saying, one to another, " What meaneth this? Others, 
mocking, said, These men are full of new wine." Acts ii., 1-14. Peter, 
commanding the astonished multitude of mixed nations, first refuted the 
slanders, and then entered into the discussion of the extraordinary phe- 
nomena; that they had seen the remarkable events predicted by Joel, 
which marked the Advent of the Spirit and the signs denoting the begin- 
ning and. close of the gospel dispensation of the Holy Spirit, during which 
a people for God's name would be gathered out from the masses of the Gen- 
tiles. Such was the Advent of the Comforter and its immediate result was 
a plentiful harvest. Here opens the dispensation of the grace of God to all 
mankind and the apostolic commission, '* Go ye into all the world and 



496 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

preach the gospel to every creature," had infused into it its divine power. 
It was for the coming of this power from on high that they were com- 
manded to tarry in Jerusalem. The apostles now go forth, the divine 
Spirit everywhere accompanying them and working its wonders. This 
new system of religious education spread through the Roman empire with 
miraculous rapidity. It was soon said that its holy system of revealed 
truth had been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. The gift of 
tongues, imparted on the day of Pentecost, vastly aided its propagation. 
Persecutions from Jews and pagans only scattered more widely the fire that 
caught and burned fiercely where it fell. Every devout disciple started a 
new centre in the spiritual conflagration. The more it was beaten the 
more widely it spread, and the more fatal to the system of Judaism and 
pagan idolatry. For the early spread of the gospel the Acts of the apostles 
furnish us with a divine record. To that book we direct the reader. A 
few general remarks relative to the Spirit's Advent and mission will close, 
for the present, our sketch of this interesting topic. The early history of 
the populated earth presents a broken record of moral pollution and violent 
bloodshed, and it sank for its cleansing under an ocean of waters. The new 
peopling of the earth by the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth, 
has to the present time been marked, apparently, by all the symptoms of 
a moral failure. What have been the leading features of its moral history 
under Messiah's dynasty ? Its moral education, including the entire human 
family, has not amounted to the knowledge of the least primary elements. 
Asia and Africa have, in every age, been full of the habitations of cruelty. 
The fall was such an entire separation from God, with His moral bright- 
ness, that Adam, shut out from paradise, walked through the earth with a 
black canopy over him of one star only. The seed of the woman shall 
bruise the serpent's head. God's purpose towards the earth and its future 
ruling dynasty (man under His Son, Messiah), developed very gradually. 
His plans were made known to a select few, the choice spirits of the earth. 
It is about 25h centuries, after the promise of the " Seed of the woman," 
before Jehovah enunciates His Great National arrangement. (Deut. xxxii., 
8.) During the patriarchal age (to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), Jehovah 
made many other disclosures of His plans of His ultimate Purpose of 
establishing a universal empire in righteousness under His Son Messiah. 
Following this was a dispensation of law and of types, under which insti- 
tution one family was selected to be moral teachers of the world. The law 
was the schoolmaster to bring to Messiah. The Temple was the school- 
house, and the land of promise the school-lot; the ground of exercise (Go 
not in the way of the Gentiles). This instruction as a preparatory school 
was vastly in advance of all other known systems of morality. At last the 
University is completed and its first session opens under its great Professor 
like unto Moses — Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of God. His instruc- 
tions were in advance, not of the age (for He came at the time appointed), 
but of the apostate, degenerate teachers of that age. The result was, " He 
came unto His own (the Jews, Judah — W.), and His own received Him not. 
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons 



HEBEEW PHASE. 497 

of God (even), to them that believed on His name."' John i., 11, 12. He 
was put to death ; was buried, and after three days arose; and after teaching 
His apostles forty days, ascended and sat down on the right hand of the 
Father, which was established by the Advent of the Spirit on the day of 
Pentecost. 

(3.) The third event of this tenth Hebrew epoch is the history of the 
Jews during that period. This portion of Jewish history, covering the first 
seventy years of the Christian Era, is full of remarkable events. It takes 
the features of a protracted family quarrel. Herod the Great, sinking un- 
der the weight of domestic troubles, expired and was buried under the 
tempestuous waves which his own restless ambition and jealousies had 
originated. His cruelties effaced the memory of all his public munificence, 
and he died under the hatred of the entire Jewish nation. The seeds of 
civil discord which he had sown broad-cast, sprang up and covered this 
period with an abundant harvest. The disputes and wars among the mem- 
bers of the Herodian family laid the foundation for all the wars and blood- 
shed of the century. The Jewish nobility could illy indure the evils and 
oppressions of a protracted Idumean dynasty; and as the Romans were 
friends to Herod, it caused the nation to engender hostility to the great 
empire. This hostile feeling continued to grow and to gather power during 
the entire period of Christ's first Advent. By the Herods and the Roman 
officers, the ruling sectaries of the Jews, the nation was kept under a fever- 
ish excitement, the new religious elements, originating with Jesus of Naza- 
reth, added fuel to the civil and religious burnings. Christ publicly 
declared such to be the necessary fruits of His mission. " Think not that 
I came to send peace on earth : I came not to send peace, but a sword. Foj- 
I am come to set man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 
And a man's foes (shall be) they of his own household." Matt, x., 34, 35, 
36. " I am come to send fire on the earth ; and what will I, if it be already 
kindled?" Luke xii., 49. These enunciations might seem to conflict with 
the nature of Christ's mission as declared by the angels at His birth : 
" Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
Luke ii., 14. This peace belongs to the period of His reign upon the 
throne of His father David. As an authoritative teacher, like Moses, no 
such fruits could be anticipated. The Jews had so corrupted and made 
void the moral elements of Moses' laws that the restitution of the code, 
buried under masses of tradition, could not be exhumed without hot-blood, 
violence and bloodshed. Such were the legitimate fruits of Christ's teach- 
ing among the Jews. As light and darkness will not associate, neither can 
truth and falsehood. Contests are between opposites. The Jews fought 
for the supremacy of their traditions. Christ came to fulfil the law and 
the prophets, not tradition, this required time to divest them, first, of all 
traditional rubbish. In accomplishing this work He brought upon Him- 
self and His disciples the fierce ire of the Jewish nation. The struggle was 
severe and social in its results as well as national. His doctrines did not 
allow any compromise : no neutrality. He that is not with me is against 
32 



498 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

me. The Jewish nation, subordinate to the Romans, had within its terri- 
tory three hostile religions struggling for ascendency. Pagan, Jewish 
traditional, and that of Jesus of Nazareth. 

Concerning the Herodian family during the first thirty-three years of 
the Christian era, we propose to pass it without any special notice. Civil 
affairs were so arranged by the divine Governor as not to allow any hin- 
drance to Christ's mission as the Great Teacher. God's dealings with 
Judah after their crucifixion of His Son, demands a more extended notice, 
since it was judiciously executive. They had said, ''His blood (be) on us, 
and on our children." Matt, xxvii. 25. One thought suggests itself as 
worthy of notice, preparatory to the further examination of their progres- 
sive history from the ascension of Christ, the object Jehovah had in view 
by dividing the nation into religious sects before the advent of His Son ; 
also the national subordination as it existed under Rome. The ten tribes, 
under the supremacy of Ephraim, were banished from the land (a) for the 
purpose of freeing His land from idolatry, the most insulting of all sins ; 
(6) to punish them for idolatry ; (c) but chiefly to send them to the islands 
of the sea where they were to become a multitudinous nation, or a union 
or a confederacy of a multitude of nations. Judah was required to remain 
in the land, (a) to keep up the temple service ; (6) to perpetuate the line of 
genealogy to the seed Christ ; (c) to give birth to the Messiah ; (c?) to afford 
Him a place (school house and lot) where He could give His instructions. 
To cure Judah of the idolatry which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had in- 
troduced, Jehovah brought upon that nation a seventy years' captivity in 
Babylon; after which the temple service was re-established. Their civil 
power, however, came under Gentile subordination. The Gentile horns of 
Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and Rome, ruled over them preparatory to 
the incarnation of Messiah. Rome was friendly to Judah till after the 
crucifixion of Christ. The division of the nation into sect instruction, as 
under the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Scribes, and Herodians, prepared 
the people for the instructions of the great Teacher. As ores and com- 
pound substances have to be broken to pieces and reduced to particles be- 
fore they, as elements, can enter into new combinations, so it is with the 
introduction of new moral principles. If the Jews had all been Pharisees 
or Sadducees, how could the teachings of Christ have gained any foothold ? 
The nation had to be reduced to an elementary condition. Let us now 
sketch the history of the Jews from the ascension of Christ A. D. 33 to the 
fall of Jerusalem A. D. 70. This covers a space of about 37 years, a period 
crowded with noted events, both national, social, physical, and ecclesias- 
tical. The supreme civil rule of the Jews was vested in the hands of the 
Romans ; the subordinate rule was in the Hebrew family, while the new 
religion, taught by the apostles of Christ, began its struggle against Juda- 
ism and Idolatry. It should be remembered that the authority of the 
ceremonial law extended only to the cross (Col. ii. 14.) ; yet the temple ser- 
vice was kept up by the Jews through this whole period. It had no divine 
sanction, however, after the death of the anti-typical sacrifice. Every 
typical sacrifice after the death of Christ was an abomination. " He that 



HEBREW PHASE. 499 

(after that — W.) killeth an ox, (is as if) he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth 
a lamb, (as if) he cut off a dog's neck ; he that burneth incense, (as if) he 
blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul de- 
lighteth in their abominations." Is. Ixvi. 3. Their zeal was great, yet 
without principle. The idea that the religion, taught by one that they 
had caused to be executed as a criminal, should gain any victory over their 
own venerable system, was too humiliating for their proud spirits. They 
persecuted these new disciples everywhere, even unto death. Yet its con- 
quests multiplied. The Jewish nation, after its crucifixion of Christ, had 
every feature of a God-deserted people. Their services had no vitality; 
their institutions no adhesiveness. The civil dynasty was still Herodian ; 
yet with the fall of Jerusalem terminated their wicked government. Let 
us notice some features of their reign during the early spread of the Gospel. 
Herod Agrippa I. was the fifth in order of Herods, yet the grandson of 
Herod the Great. He was brought up and educated at Rome with Claudius 
and Drusus; was thrown into prison by Tiberius, but was released by 
Caius (Caligula) A. D. 57. He had bestowed upon him the ensigns of 
royalty, and his dominion increased. He had risen from poverty to wealth 
and great power. Herod Antipas being banished through Herodias, his 
brother Philip's wife, (who had instigated the death of John the Baptist,) 
his dominions were given to Agrippa I. About A. D. 4l Judea and Sama- 
ria were added to his territory by Claudius. Agrippa favored the Jews, 
and unlike his predecessors, he was a strict observer of the law. He perse- 
cuted the disciples of Christ in order to gain favor with the Jews. He put 
to death James the son of Zebedee, and caused Peter to be imprisoned (Acts 
xii. 2. 3). He was, however, suddenly arrested bj^ the angel of Him who 
hath said. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. In his fourth year 
(A. D. 44) of royalty over all Judea, Agrippa was present at the Csesarean 
games, celebrated in honor of the Emperor. Luke makes the following 
record, " Upon a certain set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon 
his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, 
(saying), (it is) the voice of a god, and not of man. And immediately the 
angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory : and he 
was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." Acts xii. 21. 22. 23. Josephus 
has the following : " Now when Agrippa had reigned three years, over all 
Judea, he came to the city Cesarea, which was formerly called Strato's 
Tower ; and there he exhibited shows in honor of Csesar, upon his being 
informed that there was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his 
safety. At which festival a great multitude was gotten together of the 
principal persons, and such as were of dignity through his province. On 
the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, 
and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the 
morning ; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by 
the first reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a surprising 
manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked 
intently upon him ; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one 
place, and another from another (though not for his good) that ' he was a 



600 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

god ; ' and they added, ' Be thou merciful to us ; for although we have 
hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee 
as a superior to mortal nature.' Upon this the king did neither rebuke 
them nor reject their impious flattery. But as he presently afterwards 
looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and im- 
mediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings to 
him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain also arose in his 
belly, and began in a most violent manner. He therefore looked upon his 
friends, and said, ' I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to de- 
part this life ; while providence thus reproves the lying words you just 
now said to me ; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately 
to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept what Providence 
allots, as it pleases God ; for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splen- 
did and happy manner' (no giving God the glory — W.). When he had 
said this, his pain was become violent. Accordingly he was carried into 
the palace; and the rumor went abroad everywhere, that he would cer- 
tainly die in a little time. But the multitude presently sat in sack-cloth, 
with their wives and children, after the law of their country, and besought 
God for the king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and 
lamentation. Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as he saw them 
below lying prostrate on the ground, he could not himself forbear weeping. 
And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five 
days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in 
the seventh year of his reign." Upon a critical comparison of the records 
of Luke and Josephus (they both writing in Greek,) we have not been able 
to discern any discrepancy. Josephus' account is more lengthy and cir- 
cumstantial. Luke says what Agrippa confesses, that he was smitten by 
dyyeXov, angel or messenger of God. Agrippa sees an owl, a visible symbol 
of God's judgment, as a dove, at Christ's baptism, wab a visible symbol of 
God's Spirit. Luke leaves out the Owl as it would look towards heathen 
superstition. An omission is not a contradiction. This case is an illus- 
trious example of the offensive nature of idolatry, especially in that land 
which God had selected as His sanctuary or visible abode. " Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me," had an expressive meaning : before me, in 
my presence, in the land that I have chosen as my special dwelling place, 
on the land where my future abode and that of my Son will be established. 
This my sanctuary must be kept free from idols. For the sin of idolatry I 
drove out the Canaanites ; for that sin I expatriated the ten-tribed Israel of 
my own family ; for idolatry and sabbath breaking I expatriated Judah for 
seventy years. It was for idolatrous practices that Jehovah executed His 
divine displeasure at various periods on Egypt, Syria, and on other border- 
ing nations. He has purposed that no idolatrous nation shall occupy the 
land, hence Mohammedan Unitarianism has been prefered to Roman apos- 
tate idolatry. Neither image nor image- worship is tolerated by the " God 
of Israel" in the land selected for His own special dwelling-place. God is 
jealous of that land, hence idolatry is banished, and men receiving divine 
honors as Agrippa I. are executed. At such severe judgment we cannot 



HEBREW PHASE. 501 

wonder, when we consider the infinite discrepancy between the Creator and 
the created. A pure and loyal monarch is to occupy the whole earth, 
having the land of Israel as its radiating centre. It is fit then that the 
cleansing process should begin at the sanctuary. These thoughts will en- 
able us to interpret correctly great national revolutions, and follow the 
footsteps of the Almighty in the earth's progressive developments. 

Agrippa II., the sixth and last Herod, took part with the Romans 
against the Jews. He died at Rome A. D. 100., in the third year of Trajan. 
We may call the period that elapsed from the crucifixion of Christ to the 
fall of Jerusalem, and the utter extinction of the Jewish nation, the era of 
the introduction of Judah's executive judgment, during which God's ex- 
ecutive agent is the Romans for the great work. Other distinctive features 
of that introductory age of judgment will now be noticed: such only as 
mark God's displeasure against that people for the rejection and crucifixion 
of His Son. These husbandmen had cast His Son out of His vineyard, 
and had slain Him. It was now His purpose to destroy those husband- 
men, and to let out His vineyard to others, who should render Him the 
fruits in their seasons. Let us notice the distinctive features of this period. 
Luke and Josephus shall constitute our principal authorities. Luke's 
record is from Jesus Himself; a narration of history in advance. Christ's 
prophetic history divides itself into two very distinct periods. (1) From the 
beginning of Christian mission to the fall of Jerusalem. (2) From the fall 
of Jerusalem to the second advent of Christ. For the present we shall con- 
fine our narration to the first period, since it covers the last of the tenth 
epoch of Hebrew history. 

The first period contains the following noted items, which we shall 
now examine: 

(a) Disciples of Christ, their treatment. 

(b) Conduct of the Jews, among themselves, towards the Christians, 
and towards the Romans. 

(c) Conduct of the Romans, in gradually overthrowing the nation. 

(d) False Christs and impostors, who deceived the Jews. 

(e) Extraordinary phenomena, such as earthquakes, famines, etc. 
(/) Siege and fall of Jerusalem, the two divisions of the siege. 
These general heads we shall examine very briefly, since we have 

noticed them in detail in our work, " Coming Age," to which we refer the 
reader. Here we examine with the object of noting God's special dealings 
with the Jews. Their national overthrow comes as the beginning of their 
punishment for the rejection and murder of His Son, and for the begin- 
ning of their mission among all nations. 

(a) The Christians — their treatment. Christ has given the following 
as recorded in Lu. xxii. 12-20. : " But before all these, they shall lay their 
hands on you, and persecute (you), delivering (you) up to the synagogues, 
and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. 
And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle (it) therefore in your 
hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer : For I will give you 
a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- 



502 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

say nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, 
and kinsfolks, and friends ; and (some) of you shall they cause to be put 
to death, and ye shall be hated of all (men) for my name's sake. But there 
shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your 
souls." The Acts of the Apostles give us the history of such persecutions. 
Such results followed the proclamation of the Gospel in Judea. 

(b) The conduct of the Jews towards the Disciples of our Lord is 
clearly delineated by Christ in His prophetic history. The propagation of 
the Gospel met the opposition of the Jews everywhere. Their hatred to 
Jesus gathered into bloody persecution against His disciples. They learned 
what their Master's meaning was, when He said, " If they do these things 
in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry." Lu. xxiii. 31. They were 
divided among themselves into hostile factions, keeping the masses and the 
well-disposed in constant dread of impending danger. The hatred of the 
commanders of these factions were exceedingly hostile, increasing in vio- 
lence every day. Nothing was more distinctly taught, than the fact that 
they were a God-forsaken people. Jehovah was mustering His armies for 
their hasty overthrow. 

(c) The Romans were fully advised of their hostility, and, therefore 
made all the preparations necessary for the final conflict. Every eastern 
movement of that great empire, demonstrated the guidance of an over- 
ruling destiny. Their movement crowded the nation into Jerusalem where 
the people might be shut in. The Jews, however, were judicially blinded 
to their impending ruin and rushed on in judicial blindness. False Christs 
became numerous. Simon Magus. Acts viii. 9. 10. Dositheus, the Samari- 
tan. Theudas, when Fadus was procurator, and the numerous imposters 
who arose when Felix was procurator, who were apprehended and killed 
every day." 

(d) " Nation against nation," vs. 10. " This portended the dissen- 
sions, insurrections, and mutual slaughter of the Jews, and those of other 
nations, who resided in the same cities, in which thousands perished, the 
open wars in different tetrarchies, and the civil wars in Italy between Otho 
and Vitellius." — Bagster. These uprisings tended to the same ultimate end. 

(e) "Earthquakes" were numerous. Among the many named w^ere 
those at " Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Rome, Laodicea, Hierapolis, 
Colosse, Campania, and Judea." — Bagster. Famines and pestilences were 
also numerous. 

(/) " Fearful sights and great signs from heaven," vs. 11. Josephus 
relates the following : (1) "A star hung over the city like a sword, (2) and 
a comet continued a whole year; (3) the people being at the feast, unleav- 
ened bread, at the 9th hour of night, a great light shone around the altar 
and temple, and continued an hour; (4) a cow led to sacrifice, brought forth 
a lamb ; (5) before sunset chariots and armies were seen all over the country 
fighting in the clouds, and besieging cities." Many others Josephus also 
named. 

(g) The siege and fall of Jerusalem. This siege consists of two distinct 
parts, with an interval of nearly two years and six months. The siege of 



HEBEEW PHASE. 503 

Cestius Gallus, and that of Titus. Cestius was President of Syria. Visited 
Judea at the passover of A. D. 65, where 3,000,000 Jews surrounded and 
" besought him to commiserate the calamity of their nation and cried out 
upon Florus (their Roman Governor — W.) as bane of their country." 
Florus augmented their calamities in order to induce them to a rebellion, 
that in case of war he might escape accusation before Caesar. Some time 
in November, 67, Cestius Gallus advanced with his whole army against 
Jerusalem. '"Thus did the Romans make their attack against the wall for 
five days, but to no purpose; but on the next day, Cestius took a great 
many of his choicest men, and with them the archers, and attempted to 
break into the temple at the northern quarter of it ; but the Jews beat 
them off from the cloisters, and repulsed them several times, when they 
were gotten near to the wall, till at length the multitude of darts cut them 
off, and made them retire ; but the first rank of the Romans rested their 
shields upon the walls, and so did those that were behind them, and the 
like did those that were still more backward, and guarded themselves with 
what they call tesetudo, (the back of) a tortoise, upon which the darts, that 
were thrown fell, and slided off without doing them any harm ; so the 
soldiers undermined the wall, without being themselves hurt, and got all 
things ready for setting fire to the gates of the temple. And now it was 
that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious, insomuch that many of them 
ran out of the city, as though it were to be taken immediately; but the 
people upon this took courage, and where the wicked part of the city gave 
ground, thither did they come, in order to set upon the gates, and to admit 
Cestius as their benefactor, who, had he continued the siege a little longer, 
had certainly taken the city ; but it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion 
God had already at the city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from 
putting an end to the war that very day. It then happened that Cestius 
was not conscious either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how 
courageous the people were for him ; and so he recalled his soldiers from 
the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without hav- 
ing received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in 
the world." — Josephus. Cestius in his retreat met with a most signal 
defeat, which terminated the preliminary siege of Jerusalem. Why did 
Cestius Gallus retire from the city ? A divine agency caused it, as inti- 
mated by Josephus. The city and nation were doomed to total destruction. 
A very ancient prediction stood against the people, the city, and the land; 
even as far back as the days of Moses (B. C. 1490 and B. C. 1451). This 
last siege of Jerusalem was very distinctly seen, and minutely described. 
Please read Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii. 49-59. Who but Jehovah could 
have delineated this siege, so many centuries in advance (1,500 years). The 
remark here in place, is this: Suppose that Cestius Gallus had then made 
the conquest of the city and the nation ; there would have been a failure 
in the prophecy of Moses in two particulars at least. (1) There would have 
been no such suffering in the siege as is described in Deut. xxviii. 49-59. 
The people under Cestius had passed through no famine and, therefore, had 
been afflicted less than in former sieges. (The people would not have 



504 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

shared the same fate, for the Romans had not been so irritated, and con- 
sequently would not have expatriated them. They would have been 
allowed to remain in their own land, yet held under more severe restric- 
tions. (3) The predictions of Christ (Matt. xxiv. and Lu. xxv.) would have 
failed in their accomplishment. Christ had named two signs, the " abomi- 
nation of dczclation," of Daniel; and "Jerusalem encompassed with armies." 
Lu. xxi. 20. If the siege had closed under Cestius there would have been 
no necessity for his followers to flee. (4) The punishment could not liave 
been adequate to their crime ; nor would it have fulfilled the parable of the 
vineyard. This retreat was ordered, in order to allow the disciples an op- 
portunity to leave the city for a place of safety. For such a removal they 
were given 2^ years, for Cestius' retreat was near the close of A. D. 67. And 
Titus' siege, or the renewal of the siege of Cestius Gallus, commenced near 
the beginning of A. D. 70. Titus so perfectly surrounded the city by his 
works, that there was no opportunity for escape. We can see the hand of 
God distinctly in Cestius' flight. God purposed to execute His wrath on 
the Jews, to the full extent for their' crucifixion of His Son. The supple- 
mentary siege of Jerusalem under Titus, carried out to the last letter, both 
of the prophecies of the two great law-givers, Moses and Christ. The Jews 
and the Romans were so exasperated, the one by a blind fury, the other for 
their protracted resistance, that the siege became a conflict of extermination. 
Jehovah was on the side of the Romans, they were His executioners, and 
were carrying out His will. We have come to the terminus of the 10th 
epoch of Hebrew history. The fall of Jerusalem put an end to Jewish 
nationality, even in a subordinate sense. The crowning act of their wicked- 
ness was their casting of the Heir out of the vineyard, and slaying Him. 
God had now miserably destroyed those husbandmen and taken the vine- 
yard for other purposes. That these events took place according to Jehovah's 
purpose, revealed to Moses and known to Christ, will appear by comparing 
certain points of the prophetic and profane histories. (1) The conquests of 
the cities and strongholds outside of Jerusalem, first. Let us hear the lan- 
guage of Moses: "And He shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy 
high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all 
thy l3,nd, and He shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy 
land which the Lord thy God hath given thee." Deut. xxviii. 52. This 
feature has been somewhat overlooked, in dwelling upon vss. 53-58. Moses' 
record, vss. 53-58., was confined in its accomplishment to Jerusalem, while 
vs. 52. spreads all over the land. Only a small part of the nation dwelt in 
Jerusalem. In order, therefore, to make an entire finish of the nation, all 
the principal strongholds throughout the land had first- to be taken, so that 
the left of every stronghold should be gathered into Jerusalem. This 
is a noted point in history, that when any strongly fortified fortress fell 
into the hands of the Romans, all that could escape fled to Jerusalem, as to 
the throne and sanctuary, without any realization that it was God-forsaken 
after the death of Jesus of Nazareth. The " fearful sights and great signs 
from heaven" were given in vain to the judicially blinded. The siege of 
Jerusalem, divided into two parts, with an interval of nearly two and one- 



HEBREW PHASE. 505 

half years, during which the strongholds were taken, forms a very remark- 
able feature in the chain of Divine Providence. It shows distinctly a pre- 
viously arranged future, and as certain in its accomplishment as the laws 
of day and night, the seasons, and eclipses. God governs the Moral and 
Physical worlds with equally minute exactness. Jesus said, " When ye (my 
disciples — W.) shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that 
the desolation thereof is nigh (not immediate — W.). Then let them which 
are in Judea flee to the mountains (beyond Jordan — W.)"; and let them 
which are in the midst of it (Jerusalem — W.) depart out; and let not them 
that are in the countries enter thereinto." Lu. xxi. 20-22. " Depart out," 
implies an opportunity; an opportunity implies a suspension for a time, 
of the siege. This space was given by the retreat of Cestius Gallus. This 
space formed a part of the divine plan. Josephus declares that Cestius re- 
treated " without any reason in the world." Eusebius and Epiphanius say 
''that, at this juncture, all who believed in Christ left Jerusalem, and re- 
moved to Pella, and other places beyond Jordan ; and so escaped the general 
shipwreck of their country, that we do not read of one who perished in 
Jerusalem." — Bagster. The nation, with the fall of Jerusalem, totally ceased. 
Of the 3,000,000 of people, vast multitudes perished in Judea and Galilee; 
1,100,000 in the city, and 90,000 sold as slaves in Egypt, till no purchasers 
could be found. The others were scattered among all nations, a hissing 
and a by-word. 

The eleventh epoch of Hebrew history, extending from the fall of Jeru- 
salem, A. D. 70, to the commencement of their return ; covering their long 
dispersion, the Times of the Gentiles, and their treading down of Jeru- 
salem. Of this period the prophecies are very distinct, to aid the reader in 
his investigations we shall group some of the most distinct of these 
prophecies ; those which will be used in my narration. 

(1) Our prophetic list commences with Lev. xxvi. 33-39. "And I will 
scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you ; and 
your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land en- 
joy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye (be) in your enemies' 
land; (even) then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as 
it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when 
ye dwelt upon it. And upon them that are left (alive) of you, I will send 
a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies ; and the sound 
of a shaken leaf shall chase them ; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a 
sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one 
upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth. And ye 
shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish 
among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And 
they that are left of you shall pine in their iniquity in your enemies' 
lands ; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with 
them." 

"Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths." "This, says Houbigant, is 
an historical truth." " From Saul to the Babylonish captivity, are num- 
bered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there 



506 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

were seventy sabbaths of years ; for 7 multiplied by 70, make 490. Now, 
the Babylonish captivity lasted seventv years, and during that time the 
land of Israel (Judah — W.) rested. Therefore, the land of Israel (Judah — 
W.) rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should 
have rested sabbaths, if the Jews had observed the law relative to the sab- 
baths of the land." This fact is worthy of special note, as an exact fulfil- 
ment of vs. 34. 

(2) The second item of their prophetic history is found in Deut. 
xxviii. 64-68. ''And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from 
one end of the earth even unto the other ; and there thou shall serve other 
gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, (even) wood and 
stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the 
sole of thy foot have rest ; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling 
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in 
doubt before thee ; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none 
assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were 
even, and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning; for the fear 
of thy heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes 
which thou shalt see. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with 
ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee. Thou shalt see it no more 
again ; and ye shall be sold unto your enemies, for bond-men and bond- 
women, and no man shall buy (you)." The last verse evidently describes 
the immediate results of the siege. 

(3) The prophecy of Christ. Lu. xxi. 22, 23, 24. " For these be the 
days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But 
wo unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days ! 
for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive 
into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, un- 
til the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." The prophets are full of God's 
denunciations against Judah in His long captivity; but we have selected 
our quotations from the two great law-givers for various reasons. (1) be- 
cause of their special relationship to the Hebrews as Deliverers and Law- 
givers ; (2) because their predictions are uttered in plain historic narration. 
They speak as friend to friend, and convey their instructions in such lan- 
guage as is divested of mystic interpretation ; (3) because they will not be 
understood to speak of the brief captivity of Judah in Babylon ; (4) Moses 
might thus be interpreted in part should his words be considered by them- 
selves, but, when explained by the language of Christ, such a construction 
is inadmissible. Christ says, " For these be the days of vengeance, that all 
things which are written may be fulfilled." Christ evidently refers to what 
was said by Moses, and clearly states that those predicted calamities had 
not to that time been fulfilled. This position taken by Christ is of great 
moment, since it is an outlined prophetic history of the Jews for the last 
eighteen centuries. It is very evident that both Moses and Jesus saw the 
Hebrew family through its centuries of dispersion. (5) one other remark 
is here in place. God is represented as the chief Executor of these severe 



HEBREW PHASE. 507 

and protracted calamities. Moses teaches that fact. In Lev. xxvi, 40-43 it 
is said, " If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their 
fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me (Jehovah), 
and that also they have walked contrary unto me. And (that) I also have 
walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their 
enemies ; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and then accept 
of the punishment of their iniquity. Then will I (Jehovah — W.) remem- 
ber my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my 
covenant with Abraham will I remember ; and I will remember the land." 
In vs. 44, God's bow of future mercy is again seen : "And yet for all that, 
when they (the Hebrews — W.) be in the land of their enemies, I will not 
cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to 
break my covenant with them ; for I (am) the Lord their God." Why 
then should any one doubt the future of God's chosen family, the He- 
brews ? The above passages of Moses and Jesus shall be our shining lamp 
to interpret their history through the long night of their wanderings. 
Though, at times, their severe persecutions 'caused some to fall before idols 
of " wood and stone," still they scattered throughout the heathen world a 
knowledge of the true God. Such was their Divine mission, and to it they 
have adhered through the midnight of Paganism. 

(2) Profane history of the Jews from A. D. 70 to the Signs of the 
second Advent. In entering upon this dark and bloody record of Profane 
history, I shall preface it by the words of Jesus as given by Matthew xxiv. 
21-25. " For then (during this long night of dispersion — W.) shall be 
great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this 
time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened there 
should no flesh be saved ; but for the elect's sake (Hebrew-elect — W.) those 
days shall be shortened. Then (during those days of banishment — W.) if 
any man shall say unto you, Lo, here (is) Christ (Messiah — W.) or there, 
believe (it) not, for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and 
shall show great signs and wonders ; insomuch that if (it were) possible 
they shall deceive the very elect (of the Jews — W). It must be remem- 
bered that the Bible follows the history of the one family (the Hebrews) 
and sketches Gentile history only so far as it is connected with God's 
chosen family, the Hebrews. Hence, the four Gentile horns are named, be- 
cause they " scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem." Zech. i. 18-19. 
Christ is here (in Matt. xxiv. 21-25) addressing disciples of the Hebrew 
family, the Gentile dispensation had not yet commenced. Paul said (about 
thirteen years after Christ's address), " It was necessary that the word of 
God should first have been spoken to you (Jews — W.) ; but seeing ye 
put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, 
we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us (saying), 
I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for 
salvation unto the ends of the earth." Acts xiii. 46-47. (See Is. xlix. 6). 
The covenant people were the Hebrews. Simeon, with the infant Jesus 
in his arms, exclaims, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in 
peace, according to Thy word ; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, 



608 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to 
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." Lu. ii. 29-32. 
The Glory of Israel is the light of the Gentiles, Israel still occupies the 
chief place. While God is ministering severe chastisement upon His peo- 
ple, His apostles were gathering a people from among the Gentiles. 
James thus speaks, " Simeon hath declared (Lu. ii. 31-32) how God at 
the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. 
And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written. After this 
I will return (Second Advent, see Am. ix. 11-12 — W.) and will build 
again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down ; and will build 
again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men 
might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my ''name 
is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things." Acts xv. 14-18. 
The relationship of the two families, the Hebrew and the Gentile, un- 
der Christ, during the dispersion, is distinctly set forth by Paul in Ro. xi., 
where the Hebrews are denominated the fruitful or tame olive tree, and the 
Gentiles, the wild olive tree. The Gentile family was graffed into the tame 
olive tree. This favor stimulates the pride of the Gentile. At this point 
Paul begins to reason. As the eleventh of Romans will come up for in- 
vestigation, and the last epoch of Hebrew history we shall now pass it with 
a single thought. Gentile boasting is silenced by Paul in this expression, 
" Boast not against the branches (Jews — W). But if thou boast, thou bear- 
est not the root, but the root thee." Vs. 18. Christianity did not anni- 
hilate the good olive tree. It cut off its unfruitful branches and graffed 
in branches of the wild olive tree (Gentile family — W.) which partook of 
the root and fatness of the tame olive tree. This was severity to the 
Jews, but goodness to the Gentiles. How were the Jews treated in their 
dispersion ? The following will show. The Jewish nationality being 
totally destroyed by the Romans, we shall follow that imperial belt and its 
family of nations in order to gain our information. We travel West, not 
to the East. Ninety thousand Jews were taken in ships by the Romans to 
Egypt and sold as slaves till the market was glutted. Of this Moses writes, 
"And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way 
whereof I spake unto thee (xvii. 16). Thou shalt see it no more again ; 
and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond- 
women, and no man ^hall buy (you)." In our sketch we shall be con- 
fined principally to the western Romano-German nations, since the Jews 
that put Christ to death fled, or were carried in that direction. Many of 
the Jews now living in India, China, and in other eastern countries never 
heard of Jesus of Nazareth. During the next thirty years their treatment 
throughout the Roman empire was mild. Under Nerva the Jews shoM^ed 
some vitality in Judea. As soon, however, as they began to prosper their 
old fanatical spirit was again kindled. They made a final attempt to break 
their imperial yoke ; at Cyrene, A. D. 115; at Cyprus, A D. 116; in Meso- 
potamia, A. D. 118; and in Palestine, .under Barcocheba (star of Jacob), A. 
D. 130. In these rebellions they were defeated with immense slaughter. 
Under the false Messiah, Barcocheba, they made a terrible struggle. It is 



HEBREW PHASE. 509 

truly remarkable that the Jews should take up with such a pretender as 
Barcocheba (son of a star) and reject such a holy being as Jesus of Naza- . 
reth ; but so spake Jesus, I am come in my Father's name and ye received 
me not ; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. Jno. 
V. 43. Barcocheba resisted the Romans for four years, till A. D. 135. He 
pretended to be the star that was to come out of Jacob. Num. xxiv. 17. 
He took Jerusalem from the Romans ; was proclaimed their king ; coined 
money. Fifty towns and villages came under his dominion. Hadrian's 
general, Julius Severus, took Jerusalem, then Bether„ his last stronghold, 
August, 135. The fall of Bether put an end to the kingdom of this false 
Messiah. In this war Hadrian slew 5C0,000 Jews. They were sold in a 
fair like horses ; and they were some times put up in such multitudes that 
no buyers could be found. Hadrian passed a law that no Jew should ever 
come in Judea on pain of death. This last struggle marks the final disper- 
sion of the Jews over the earth. The foundations of their holy city were 
plowed, and a new city arose in its place, without a Jew or the God of Is- 
rael. (1) So far the false Messiahs had all been Jews, and had deceived 
the Jews only. (2) Jehovah's high sheriff, the Romans, treated the land 
as if they were its rightful owner. (3) Here the land begins her sabbaths. 

The fall of Bether visited upon the Jews desolations of all their 
national hopes; physical and mental sufferings beyond the powers of 
human tongue to express ; their Messiah false, defeated and slain ; their 
armies annihilated ; their holy city uprooted and erased ; 985 cities, towns 
and villages in ashes ; 50 fortresses razed to the ground, with the name of 
Jerusalem expunged, a heathen colony (^lia Capitolina) taking its sacred 
locality ; families parted and sold into cruel bondage ; all these with a 
thousand nameless woes filled their cup of wailing. "His blood be upon 
us and on our children." The Romans, under Titus, visited Messiah's 
blood on them, and Hadrian on their children. 

We shall now trace the history of the Western Jews (1) under Pagan 
Rome; (2) under Christian Rome; (3) under Papal Rome; (4) under Papal 
and Protestant Europe. For nearly three centuries (from Alexander's suc- 
cessors to A. D. 60), the Romans, though Pagans, were the special friends 
of the Jews. Under the Herodian family they showed them marked favors. 
It was not until the Jews had shown many provocations that the great em- 
pire turned against them. Their rebellion was so obstinate and so long 
protracted, costing the Romans such a loss of blood and treasure that they 
finally began a war of extermination. Under Titus the Jewish nation was 
utterly demolished. Not having been excluded from the land ; during the 
next sixty years they had so far recovered their nationality, that under the 
control of the false Messiah they carried on a bloody war against the em- 
peror Hadrian, nearly five years, when they were totally rooted out of the 
land. From Hadrian, A. D. 135, to Constantine the Great (A. D. 330), the 
Jews suffered a varied fortune. Christianity being still under her minority, 
did no special harm to Jews,, except by gaining from them a few converts. 
Mohammedanism was not yet in existence. (Christian idolatry was the 
parent of Mohammedanism). The Pagans had long been accustomed to 



510 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

their religious peculiarities and were not therefore specially hostile. As 
a general rule, those emperors that persecuted Christians were lenient to 
the Jews. Where, under Constantine the Great, the Christian Altar was 
joined to the Imperial Throne, the Jews fell under the power of a new 
enemy, the " Cross^' of Jesus of Nazareth, whose death their nation, three 
centuries before, had instigated. Christianity and Judaism had been rival 
enemies during the same period. The Jews, therefore, had no favors to ex- 
pect from a sect whose Lord and Master they put to death. Judaism was, 
in the view of Christians, superseded by the gospel of the Son of God. 
Constantine himself was not a persecutor of the Jews : but his co-regent, 
Gallus, in his Arion persecution A. D. 353, mixed the Jews with them, 
they being Unitarians also. At this time these banished Jews were quite 
numerous in Western Europe, especially in those countries bordering on the 
Mediterranean Sea. Gallus called them " That most hateful of all people." 
Under Julian, the apostate, the Jews had a very short respite from their 
persecutions. Julian was an apostate from Christianity ; and, as is usual 
with that class, vented his imperial spleen against the church of his youth. 
To this end he favored the Jews, giving them the privilege of rebuilding 
their temple. The foundation was cleared of its rubbish and the recon- 
struction commenced. Meeting with an enemy not anticipated (Jehovah), 
the work was given up in despair. It was difficult to convince the Jews 
that God was punishing them for the crucifixion of His Son. But so it 
was. During that period of the Christian Church, marked as the domina- 
tion of the imperial rule over ecclesiastical power, from A. D. 330 to A. D. 
476, the. Jews fared much better than under papal rule, still they suffered. 
In A. D. 418 they were excluded from the military service of the empire. 
In A. D. 429 the patriarchate at Tiberias was abolished. After the fall of 
the Western or Latin empire, the Jews came under the rule of the ten 
kingdoms which grew out of the old Roman territory. Their fortunes 
varied at various times under these ten kingdoms. In southwestern Eu- 
rope, in Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, they were, for a time, well treated ; but 
in the 6th and 7th centuries the Franks and Spanish Visigoths persecuted 
them without reason or mercy. 

Early in the 7th century a new enemy of the Jews was born in Arabia. 
For two centuries before Christ the Jews had flourished in southwestern 
Arabia. In. A. D. 530 the Christian religion, corrupted by image-worship, 
entered the territory of Yemen. At first the Jews, in the vicinity of Mecca, 
joined Mohammed, as a great chief; but when his prosperity made him 
dangerous to their religion, they became his enemy. Mohammed, however, 
gained the day. About A. D. 630 the Jews, being dispossessed of their 
Arabian territory removed to Syria. The sjDread of Mohammedanism 
through southwestern Asia, northern Asia and southwestern Europe, in- 
cluding those countries which border on the Mediterranean Sea, was, dur- 
ing the reign of the Caliphs, an advantage to the Jews. They became 
noted for their learning and trade. History states that they were coun- 
selors, secretaries, astrologers, or physicians to the Moorish rulers ; this 
period is called the "golden age of Jewish literature." It is further stated 



HEBREW PHASE. 511 

that "poets, orators, philosophers of highest eminence arose, and not 
isolated, but in considerable numbers ; and it is a well-established fact that 
to them is due — through the Arabian medium^the preservation and sub- 
sequent spreading of ancient classical literature, more especially philosphy 
in Europe. Such was the Moslem treatment of the Jews under the Caliphs. 
How were they treated in Christendom during the same period? The Chris- 
tian monarchs were principally under the power of the priesthood and were 
ready to persecute the Jews. It is a noted fact, in these centuries of Mos- 
lem favor, that the Jews had but few friends among Christians. Near the 
beginning of the eleventh century a violent persecution of the Jews began 
in Eastern Europe under Basil II. During the same century persecutions 
began in Babylonia. The " Prince of the Captivity " perished on the scaf- 
fold. Schools were closed and the best citizens fled to Spain. One thing is 
worthy of special note. They were not persecuted everywhere at the same 
time. There was always somewhere a refuge. God did not punish them 
beyond measure. While inflicting punishment in one country He provides 
a refuge in another, so that the vices and malice of His visible agents of 
His executive judgments might not exterminate His family. His oath was 
involved in their continued existence and final return. While persecuted 
in Asia and Eastern Europe they were more or less protected by the popes 
in Italy, and found a home in Spain and in France. At the court of Louis 
I. le Debonnaire, or the Pious, son of Charlemagne, it is said the Jews were 
" all-powerful." "After A. D. 877, when the weak Carlovingians had begun 
to rule, and the church was advancing with imperious strides, a melan- 
choly change ensued — kings, bishops, feudal barons, and even the munici- 
palities, all joined in a carnival of persecution. From the llth to the 14th 
centuries their history is a successive series of massacres. All manner of 
wild stories were circulated against them ; it was said that they were wont 
to steal the host and to contemptuously stick it through and through; to in- 
veigle Christian children into their houses and murder them; to poison 
wells, etc. They were hated also for their excessive usury, though there 
can be no doubt that more blame is attachable to those whose tyranny, by 
depriving them of the right to possess land, had compressed their activity 
into the narrower channels of traffic. Occasionally, however, their debtors, 
high and low, had recourse to what they called Christian religion as a very 
easy means of getting rid of their obligations." In the reign of Philippe 
Auguste, the Jews held mortgages of immense value on the property of 
church valuables. These were canceled, the debts confiscated, the property 
of Jews taken and the Jews banished from the country. Such was then 
the popular French method of settling Jew claims; first oblige them to 
traffic for a living, and when successful, rob and banish them. Their won- 
derful success in accumulating money and personal property may be 
accounted for by the superiority of the Mosaic institutions, which required 
them to be industrious, temperate and frugal. Such a people, residing in a 
community of opposite habits, must of necessity acquire from their neigh- 
bors. Such a people as this hated race has Jehovah, for wise purposes, 
sifted among the nations. Louis IX. of France was another persecutor, 



512 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

though " very pious." He reigned from A. D. 1226-1270. " For the benefit 
of his soul " he canceled one-third of the claims which the Jews held against 
his subjects. An edict was also passed for the destruction of the Jewish 
sacred books ; when it was said that twenty-four carts filled with Talmuds 
and other works were burned in Paris. 

In the reign of Philippe IV. A. D. 1285-1314, surnamed Le Bel., the 
fair, (A. D. 1306) the Jews were expelled from France, which was accom- 
panied with all the usual robberies and cruelties. In about a dozen years, 
owing to the depressed state of the finances, they were recalled and allowed 
to collect their claims on the condition that two-thirds of their amount 
should be given to the king. The last great persecution was called the 
" Shepherd Rising." It has been termed a "Religious Epidemic." A fiend- 
like frenzy seized upon the common people of Languedoc and central 
France which began to vent itself on the hated Jews, (A. D. 1321.) So 
horrible were their massacres in Verdun and Garonne, that the Jewish 
mothers, in the madness of their agony, from a loft^ tower where they had 
fled, threw down their children to the " Christian mob to appease their 
demoniacal fury. Soon after the plague began its ravages and the wildest 
crimes were charged to them. In whole provinces every Jew was burned. 
" At Chinon a deep ditch was dug, an enormous pile was raised, and 160 of 
both sexes burned together!" Their martyrdoms were equal to that of 
Christians of any age. They leaped into the place of torment singing 
hymns, as if going to a wedding. They were finally banished from France. 

JEWS IN ENGLAND. 

The Jews were introduced into England six and a half centuries after 
the fall of Jerusalem, A. D. 740. Their progress was westward by their 
severe European servitude, along the Mediterranean Sea and on the Atlantic 
and along the northern channels and seas. William the Conqueror and his 
son, William Rufus, were friendly to the Jews. A discussion taking place 
between the Jews and Christians, Rufus swore "by the face of St. Luke," 
that the rabbins beat the bishops, and that he would turn Jew. He farmed 
out the vacant bishoprics to the Jews and gave them three halls at Oxford, 
the seat of learning, and Hebrew was taught to both Jews and Christians. 
As their wealth increased they became more unpopular. The first popular 
outbreak in England against the Jews took place at the coronation of 
Richard the Lion Heart, A. D. 1189. The occasion of the popular move- 
ment was the following: The Jews, by law, had been excluded from being 
present at the coronation ceremonies, for what reason it is not stated. On 
this occasion some foreign Jews were seen in the assembly. The circum- 
stance waked up the rabble with some of the priests, and a London Jew- 
mob commenced. The houses of the Jews were first robbed of all their 
valuables then burned. The orders of the chief justice and of the king 
with difficulty restrained the mob (three being hanged). This persecution 
extended throughout the kingdom. In York most of the Jews preferred 
voluntary martyrdom in the synagogue to forced baptism. On the return 



HEBREW PHASE. 513 

of Richard from the crusades in Palestine, the condition of the Jews 
was ameliorated for a time, though treated with great rigor, still their lives 
and property were protected — ''for a consideration!'' that is, they paid 
heavily for this protection. The more they were honored, the greater the 
hatred of the priests and the people. Oh a sudden the vascillating and un- 
principaled king turned round on his proteges (the Jews whom he had pro- 
tected), after they had become wealthy ; imprisoned, insulted and plun- 
dered them in all his country. Under Henry III. they were "mulcted en- 
ormously. Accusations of every kind were brought against them. They 
were accused of clipping the coin of the realm, and as a penalty, they were 
required to pay into the royal treasury (A. D. 1230) the third of their move- 
able property. The accession of Edward I. (A. D. 1272) was no mitigation 
of their sufferings. An effort was made to induce them to cease the 
practiees of usury, as there was in France at the same time-; this they 
could not do and pay the usurous taxes to the king, priests and nobles. 
All Christendom was combined to tax, insult and oppress the hated Jew. 
They could not make enough in ordinary occupations to pay their taxes. 
The Dominican friars attempted in vain to convert them to Papal Chris- 
tianity ; and in 1253 the Jews, no longer able to withstand the insults and 
persecutions, and robberies, begged of their own accord the privilege of 
leaving the country. Richard of Cornwall persuaded them to remain. In 
A. D. 1290 they were driven from the shores of England, followed by the 
execration of an infuriated rabble, and leaving in the hands of the king all 
their property, debts, obligations and mortgages. Their number was about 
10,000 who went to France and Germany. 

JEWS IN GERMANY. 

That persecuted race appeared on the territory of the mother of modern 
nations soon after the days of Constantino the Great. They came there as 
slaves, out of the Roman empire, and were held as the special property of 
their monarchs. They were called " Kammerknechte," " chamber-ser- 
vants." By the eighth century they had spread over all northern Ger- 
many, and had developed their usual characteristic features, they being 
noted for their usury, which resulted from the combination of causes, 
similar to those existing in other countries. The same traits of character 
were visited by similar treatment throughout the entire family of German 
nations. The reason will appear in future developments. Their taxes 
were out of measure ; body tax, capitation tax, trade taxes, coronation tax, 
a multitude of gifts were required to supply the craving wants of emperors 
and nobles. "A raid against the Jew was a favorite pastime of a bankrupt 
noble in those days." Crusaders of all Christendom were the sworn ene- 
mies of all the opposers of the cross of Christ. The principal cities of 
Germany were crimson with the blood of Jews, slain for their religion and 
usury. During such times the people and inferior priests gave loose rein 
to their low, violent passions. With the acute scent of the bloodhound the 
Jew was traced into his most secret retirements and murdered. " The word 
33 



514 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

"Aep" (said to be the initials of Hierosolyma est perdita, Jerusalem is 
taken) throughout all the cities of the empire became the signal for mas- 
sacre, and if any insensate monk sounded it along the streets, it threw the 
rabble into paroxysms murderous -^age." The Jews were driven, after being 
plundered and abused, from Vienna A. D 1196, Mecklenburg A. D. 1225, 
Breslau A. D. 1226, Brandenburg A. D. 1243, Frankfort A. D. 1241, Munich 
A. D. 1285, Nuremberg A. D. 1390, Prague A. D. 1391, and Ratisbon A. D. 
1476. The " Black Death," (a plague that desolated the world in the 14th 
century,) was the occasion of a very severe and extended persecution, A. D. 
1348-50. Of this persecution history gives the following : Black Death, 
originating in China, supposed to have been caused by a " series of great 
convulsions of the earth's structure which commenced A. D. 1333, and con- 
tinued 26 years, continued powerfully to affect the conditions of animal 
and vegetable life. The great country of China for 26 years, A. D. 1333 to 
1348-49, suffered terrible mortality from droughts, famines, floods, earth- 
quakes which swallowed mountains and swarms of innumerable locusts; 
and in the last few years of that period, by the plague. The order of the 
seasons seemed at times to be inverted ; storms of thunder and lightning 
were frequent in the dead of winter, and there occurred great earthquakes 
and eruptions of volcanoes conceived to have become extinct. This great 
tellurian activity, accompanied by the decomposition of vast organic mas- 
ses, myriads of bodies of men, brutes, and locusts, produced some change 
in the atmosphere, unfavorable to life." Some writers said that the impure 
air was actually visible. ''A dense and awful fog was seen in the heavens, 
rising in the east and descending upon Italy." The plague destroyed 24,- 
000,000 in Asia and 25,000,000 in Europe, and vast multitudes in Africa. 
In Germany 1,244,434 died. This angel of death poured out the vials of 
Divine wrath upon this seat of modern nations, the seat of the holy Roman 
empire. The effect of Black Death on the morals of Europe was terrible. 
Many died of fear. It dissolved among the living the ties of kindred; 
mothers cast their plague-stricken children out of their arms. The world- 
ling sank into the deep waters of pollution. Others rushed into the church. 
Superstition banded many together for common safety. The brotherhood 
thus formed took the name Flagellants. Composed at first of the lower 
class, they soon gathered into their commune men and women of the 
highest orders. They marched from city to city, robed in somber gar- 
ments, with red crosses on the breast, back, and cap, and with their heads 
covered as far as the eyes ; they went chanting in solemn processions with 
. banners, with down-turned faces, and bearing tripple scourges with points 
of iron, with which, at stated times, they lacerated their bodies. They 
finally spread over all central Europe. At this critical juncture, while the 
Flagellants were scattering Black Death over Europe, persecution in its 
most horrid forms was commenced against the Jews. They were accused 
of causing the plague by poisoning the public wells. The people rose to 
exterminate the Hebrew race. In Mayence twelve thousand we^e put to 
death. They were killed by fire and by torture wherever they could be 
found. To the terrors of plague the Jews were exposed to the attacks of 



HEBREW PHASE. 515 

an infuriated populace. " No adequate notion can be conveyed of these 
horrors. With terror of poison and of plague in a state of society rude at 
the best, but now disorganized, what means were available to mitigate or 
prevent the sufferings of the people were rendered altogether nugatory. 
Many sought death amidst the conflagrations of their synagogues. The 
race almost disappeared from Germany, only however, to return, for their 
services were indispensable. Only here and there, however, they possessed 
the rights of citizens, or were allowed to hold unmovable property ; in 
general, they were permitted to prosecute only commerce and usury, and 
the law turned on them its frowning face. It was not uncommon for em- 
perors to gratify at once their piety and their greed by canceling their 
pecuniary claims. In many places Jewish quarters and streets were 
distinct. 

Before the fall of Jerusalem, one of the families of Ham (Canaan) was 
the world's servant ; during the dark ages, and after the dispersion, God in 
His executive Providence has added to that dejected race His own chosen 
family of Judah. But who can believe that punitive dejection is to be 
without termination ? His oath teaches another lesson. 

JEWS IN SWITZERLAND. 

The Jews did not enter Switzerland till late ; and then only as a refuge 
from persecutions, and not from any attractions which that country, so 
mountainous, afforded them. During the 15th century they were expelled 
from its principal cities. They were more kindly treated in Poland and 
Lithuania. In Russia their fortunes were various ; first received, then per- 
secuted, and finally expelled. Such treatment did they receive, in turn, 
from all nations of Christendom. Christians and Jews were enemies by 
virtue of their religious tenets. The Jews, as a people, hated the memory 
of Jesus of Nazareth. 

JEWS IN SPAIN. 

We now begin to trace the history of the Jews in that country where 
their treatment reached both extremes. They had two extremes of suffer- 
ing and a mean of great prosperity. During the 6th and 7th centuries the 
Jews suffered severe persecutions from the Gothic princes; they were, there- 
fore, ready to hail the approach of the Moors. The Moorish reign in the 
Spanish peninsula was the paradise of Jews. They stood as the peers of 
the Moors in almost every privilege : and in learning their superiors. In 
consequence of such treatment, the Spanish Jews of the Moorish reign 
stood far above their brethren in other countries of the world. Among the 
Moors the Jews were not limited to the occupations of commerce and 
usury ; they were landed proprietors, and husbandmen, physicians, finan- 
cial administrators, and enjoyed special privileges; had their religious 
ceremonies and courts of justice by themselves. The Christian monarchs 
of the middle and northern divisions, appreciating the value of their Jewish 
population imitated the Moors in their kind treatment. But the poverty 



516 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of the Christian nobles, resulting from their fast living, soon caused them 
to reverse their conduct towards the industrious and frugal Jews. The in^ 
creasing power of the priests added power to the nobility. In consequence 
of extravagant living the estates of the nobles, and many of those posses- 
sions attached to the cathedrals and churches, were heavily mortgaged to 
the Jews. These pecuniary obligations originated a severe and long pro- 
tracted persecution against that world-hated race. 

The Jews were soon confined to definite localities. Their taxes were 
increased. Outbursts of priests and people took place in the principal 
towns and cities A. D. 1391-92. Vast numbers sufiered death, and whole- 
sale theft was perpetrated by the religious rabble. Escape to Africa was 
their only refuge, or baptism at the point of the sword. These forced con- 
verts to Christianity numbered about 200,000. During the 15th century 
the Spanish Jews suffered hardships which no pen can adequately deline- 
ate. " Persecution, violent conversion, massacre, the tortures of the inqui- 
sition — we read of nothing but these ! Thousands were burned alive. ' In 
one year 280 were burned in Seville alone.' " Now and then the nobles 
and popes struggled in vain to mitigate the fiendish zeal of the inquisitors. 
The following graphic description of the persecution of the Spanish Jews 
will interest and instruct the reader. "At length the hour of final horror 
came. In A. D. 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict for the ex- 
pulsion, within four months, of all who refused to become Christians, with 
the strict inhibition to take neither gold nor silver out of the country. The 
Jews offered an enormous sum for its revocation, and for a moment the 
sovereign hesitated; but Torquemada, the Dominican inquisitor-general, 
dared to compare his royal master and mistress to Judas ; they shrank from 
the awful accusation ; and the ruin of the most industrious, the most thriv- 
ing, the peaceable, and the most learned of their subjects — and conse- 
quently of Spain herself— became erremediable. This is perhaps the 
grandest and most melancholy hour in their modern history. It is con- 
sidered by themselves as great a calamity as the destruction of Jerusalem. 
300,000 (some even give the numbers at 650,000 or 800,000,) resolved to 
abandon the country, which a residence of seven centuries had made 
almost a second Judea to them. The incidents that marked their depar- 
ture are heart-rending. Almost every land was shut against them. Some, 
however, ventured into France; others into Italy, Turkey and Morocco, in 
the last of which countries they suffered the most frightful privations. Of 
the 80,000 who obtained an entrance into Portugal on payment of eight 
gold pennies a head, but only for eight months, to enable them to obtain 
means of departure to other countries, many lingered after the expiration of 
the appointed time, and the poorer were sold as slaves. An 1495 A. D. 
king Emanuel commanded them to quit his territories, but just at the 
same time issued a secret decree that all Jewish children under 14 years of 
age should be torn from their mothers, retained in Portugal, and brought 
up as Christians. Agony drove the Jewish mothers into madness ; they 
destroyed their children with their own hands, and threw them into wells 
and rivers, to prevent them from falling into the hands of their persecutors. 



HEBREW PHASE. 517 

The miseries of those who embraced Christianity, but who, for the most 
part, secretly adhered to their old faith (Onssim, Anusszim — ' yielding to 
violence,' * forced ones '), were hardly less dreadful, and it was far on in the 
17th century before persecution ceased. Autos-da-fe of suspected converts 
happened as late as 1655 A. D." — Library of Universal Knowledge. 

These homeless wanderers were more kindly treated in Italy and Tur- 
key than in any other countries. During the persecutions of the 15th and 
16th centuries, the Jews were found in nearly all of the Italian cities, occu- 
pied in various kinds of traffic, having almost the entire trade of the Levant, 
but principally in money-lending, in which they rivaled the great Lombard 
bankers. Abrabanel, perhaps the most eminent Jewish scholar and divine 
of his day, rose to be confidential adviser to the king of Naples. In Turkey 
they were esteemed more highly than the conquered Greeks. The latter 
were called " slaves,^' while the Jews went by the name of " visitors^ The 
Jews were permitted to re-open their institutions of learning, establish 
their synagogues, and to reside in all the commercial towns in the east end 
of the Mediterranean Sea. Hence the reason of the occupancy of the land 
of Israel by that empire. We have seen that Christianity, whose seat of 
empire was usually Rome, was a more violent persecutor of the Jews than 
Mohammedanism. The great papal raids against Mohammedan Jerusalem, 
which Continued over two centuries, were disastrous to the Jews ; yet it 
extended their dispersion more widely over the earth. What effect had the 
Protestant Reformation on that people? The invention of printing, and 
the revival of learning, and the new turn of thought, that had its birth in 
the new religious freedom of Protestantism, did ultimately benefit the Jew, 
yet the immediate fruits of the Reformation were injurious. Pope Sextus 
V. was a better friend to the Jews than Luther. Violent means for their 
conversion was a favorite notion of Luther's in the early period of his 
reformatory movements. In 1588 Sextus abolished all the persecuting 
statutes of his predecessors, allowed them unrestricted trade, religious 
liberty, and equal justice. They had civil, social, and ecclesiastical free- 
dom. Protestantism did not secure to the Jews their rights. 

Amelioration of the Jews ; Jews of the 18th and 19th centuries. A 
glance at the condition of the Jews in the great nations of the world, will 
reveal a great change for the better. (1) We shall sketch these changes and 
(2) shall endeavor to account for those changes. That the Reformation was 
not the direct cause of ameliorating the state of the Jews, will appear, if 
we examine their condition during the early years of that Reformation. 
Their sufferings were more severe both among Protestants and Roman 
Catholics. This was especially the case in Germany, which was at that 
time denominated " The Holy Roman Empire." The Jews were expelled 
from Bavaria A. D. 1553, from Brandenburg A. D. 1573, and they suffered 
similar treatment elsewhere. During the 17th century, and in the early 
portions of 18th century, their treatment throughout the German empire 
became more and more severe. The removal of the disabilities of th>e Jews 
has been a very gradual work, progressing from country to country, accord- 
ing to the peculiarities of local circumstances. Holland stands first on the 



518 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

list of countries of modern times that emerged from the moral gloom of 
the middle ages. Its inhabitants, active, intelligent, and enterprising, early- 
discerned the value of its Jewish population, as, to their business qualifica- 
tions. In A. D. 1603 they were permitted to settle there and trade. They 
acquired the rights of citizenship A. D. 1796. They formed the first class 
of business men. 

The strict order of time would require us to place England directly 
after Holland. The edict of Edward I. against the Jews continued in force 
for three centuries, till the protectorate of Cromwell A. D. 1655. Cromwell 
and the lawyers favored the Jews, but the religious part of the nation, in- 
cluding the priests, were hostile. Nothing was done till the reign of Charles 
II. Having need of their money and business services, he permitted them 
quietly to settle in the island. In A, D. 1723 the Jews acquired the right 
to possess estates in land; the right of naturalization was given them A.D. 
1753 ; since 1830 civic corporations have been opened to them ; also, since 
1833 the profession of advocates : since 1845 the office of Alderman and of 
Lord-Mayor. '' The last and crowning triumph of the principle of tolera- 
tion was achieved in 1858 by the admission of Jews into Parliament." The 
Jews in France have made great strides towards political freedom. Of the 
vast hosts of Jewish exiles from Spain, under the persecution of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, many found a temporary lodgment in France. For genera- 
tions their prospects were exceedingly gloomy. They gradually spread over 
western and northern France. In 1784 the capitation tax was abolished. 
In 1790 in the midst of the throws of the revolution, the Jews petitioned 
the assembly for the rights of citizenship, which were granted under the 
advocacy of the great Mirabeau. From this time their technical designa- 
tion in France has been " Israelites." 

A sanhedrim was called by Napoleon in 1806, to decide if they were 
qualified for citizenship. FrOm a series of questions propounded. From 
the answers given they were allowed to reorganize their religious institu- 
tions in the most elaborate manner. Since that time no material change 
has been made in the Franco-Jewish laws. They have since filled the high 
civil stations under the various administrations ; they have been in the 
ministry (as instances we may name Gremieux, Goudchaux, and Fould) ; 
they also occupy high offices in the army and navy. They are noted for 
their bravery. 

In Denmark, since A. D. 1814, their privileges of citizenship have been 
equal to that of the native Danes. In Sweden the Jews are not in pos- 
session of equal freedom. They were not admitted till A. D. 1776, and in 
Norway they were excluded till 1860. They were admitted into Russia 
proper by Peter the Great, and were expelled to the number of 33,000 by 
the Empress Elizabeth in 1743. The empress Catharine II. readmitted the 
Jews. They were protected by the Emperor Alexander I., who, in 1805 and 
1809, decreed them full liberties of trade and commerce. These liberties 
were taken from them by the Emperor Nicholas. Since 1835, a scheme of 
gradual emancipation has been in contemplation. During the last two 
years the Russian Jews have suffered severely from outbursts among the 



HEBREW PHASE. 519 

people, and not properly rebuked by the soldiers and government officers. 
Still it is not a government persecution, since the Emperor has made use 
of his power to quell the disturbances, Poland is the Jewish house of 
refuge in Europe. The circumstances which gave rise to this central home 
for this people, were the following: About 1335 Casimir the Great became 
enamored with a beautiful Jewess, whom he made his mistress. Her in- 
fluence over the King, which was supreme, was used in favor of her people. 
Casimir had the laws changed so as to afibrd the Jews a comfortable retreat 
from the persecutions of other countries. This place of refuge was prepared 
for the Jews about the time that the *' Black Death " persecution was driv- 
ing the Jews out of Germany and other surrounding countries. The hand 
of God is here again quite visible. If Jehovah had not shortened and tem- 
pered those days of trouble, no Jewish flesh would have been saved. 
Prussia, under Frederick the Great, was severe in her treatment of the 
Jews, throwing them back into the middle ages, in various points of legis- 
lation. ''All manner of iniquitous and ridiculous taxes were laid upon 
them ; only a certain number were allowed to reside in the country, and 
these were prohibited from the most honorable and lucrative employments. 
The Prussian edict of A. D. 1812, put an end to these unjust restrictions. 
By this edict Jewish citizenship became nearly equal to that of the native 
Prussians. The revolution of 1848 gained for the Jews a full emancipa- 
tion." In the smaller German States the same freedom has been finally 
obtained. " The first German national assembly held in Frankfort in 1848 
contained many prominent Jewish members. Lasker, the leader of the 
national liberal party, at the Reichstag of the new German empire, is a 
Jew." The Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, passed an act of toleration in 
1782. This act was very liberal to the Jews. A limited right to possess 
and hold lands, was not granted till 1860. It may be noted that their 
liberties are progressively on the increase. 

" In Hungary and Transylvania they have long enjoyed important 
privileges, and have been protected by the nobility. As a consequence, in 
the late Hungarian insurrection they were patriotic to a man." Spain be- 
gan to tolerate the Jews again in 1857, but the Jews remembering their 
terrible exodus of the closing years of the 15th century, have not been in- 
clined to that country, nor to Portugal. Switzerland is gradually becom- 
ing liberal within the last 18 months. Alphonso, son of ex-Queen Isabella, 
of Spain, has oflered the Russian expatriated Jews a home. 

A few additional remarks relative to the Russian Jews, will be of in- 
terest to the reader. The items bear date of A. D. 1885, and therefore be- 
long to the latest Jewish developments. A part dates before the beginning 
of 1885 ; the other portions belong to the present year. "A delegate from 
twenty-three co^ngregations in Russia presented him (Sir Moses Montefiore) 
with an album, containing the fervent wishes and prayers for the prolonga- 
tion of his life, signed by fifteen hundred and sixty -two representatives of 
fifty societies bearing the name, ' The Friends of Zion,' whose object is the 
cultivation of land in Palestine." Since then, we read that a conference, 
convened by the same " Friends of Zion," was held at Kottowitz (Upper 



520 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Silesia) from November 6th to lOth, to consider definite means for pro- 
moting the colonization of Palestine. According to the Jewish Chronicle, it 
was largely attended by delegates from Austria, England, France, Germany, 
Roumania, and Russia. The Union thus formed is named after the venera- 
ble Montifiore. Among the duties assigned to the provisional committee 
are these : To exert itself to secure for the association the official recogni- 
tion of the Russian government, and to endeavor to obtain, by means of a 
deputation, the sanction of the Porte for an unrestricted settlement of 
Jewish colonists in Palestine. Sir Moses is said to entertain sanguine hopes 
that the liberty craved of the Turkish government will soon be granted." 
In the countries east and west of Europe the Jewish condition is becoming 
more prosperous. The Jews are numerous and quite prosperous in Turkey 
though they have suffered the severe exactions of the Turkish government. 
The communities of Constantinople, Adrianople, Saloniki, Smyrna, Aleppo, 
and Damascus, are considerable. In Palestine, the land of promise, they 
reckon as many as returned under Ezra and Nehemiah, and are increasing 
by colonization very rapidly. 

In Arabia the Jews are few ; in Persia they are sunk into ignorance 
through oppression ; still they are not in despair, but exclaim : " Heavy 
is our slavery, anxiously we wait for redemption." They are scattered 
through all the eastern countries. They are found in North Africa, in Nubia, 
Abyssinia, Soudan, and in more Southern Africa. Their spirit of enter- 
prise has brought them to the New World, where they number about 
125,000. They have always been free in America, so are they now in Eng- 
land. Recent estimates make their number about 5,000,000, distributed as 
follows : About 3^ millions are in Europe, about 205,000 in Asia, about 
750,000 in Africa, and about 125,000 in America. There are in Germany, 
including Austria and Prussia, 1,440,000, of whom 1,049,871 are in Austria, 
and 260,751 in Prussia. In European Russia, 2,759,811. A few are scat- 
tered among all the tribes of the earth, speaking all tongues. 

The causes which have led to the removal of Jewish disabilities. We 
now enter upon the investigation of a problem, exceedingly complex and 
very difficult of solution. Why are the fortunes of the Jews so rapidly 
ameliorating ? What is the true philosophy of these changes ? What may 
we consider the primary cause of these improvements ? We are obliged to 
place Jehovah the Chief Agent of Jewish prosperity. His own ancie'ht 
declarations afford us conclusive testimony. Let us turn again to the lan- 
guage of Moses and of Christ. Whatever they say was in God's purpose 
literally to accomplish. What is the testimony of Moses? Only a few 
points will be noticed. It will be conceded by all that admit the inspira- 
tion of the record, that God represents Himself (in Lev. xxvi. and Deut. 
xxviii.) as the Father of the Hebrew family in a special sense ; and that 
He exercises parental authority both to reward and punish them, and to 
m.oderate their punishment according to His own purposes. That our 
position is correct, let us hear Him speak : " If ye (Hebrew family — W.) 
will not hearken unto Me (Jehovah — W.) and will not do all these com- 
mandments ; and if ye shall despise My statutes ; or if your soul abhor My 



HEBREW PHASE. 521 

judgments, so that ye will not do My commandments, that ye break My 
covenant; I (Jehovah) also will do this unto you. I will even appoint 
over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague (these two malarial 
diseases we call natural, yet God controls them — W.) that shall consume the 
•eyes, and cause sorrow of heart ; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for 
your enemies shall eat it." God here represents Himself as having direct 
and absolute control over nature, using that power to punish the disobe- 
dient of His own family, the Hebrews. Read His expressions : " 1 will 
set My face against you; " " I will punish you seven time" (four times re- 
peated) ; "J will break the pride of your power;" " / will also send wild 
beasts among you ; " "J will bring a sword upon you " (the sword is a 
symbol of national calamities): The lesson here taught is this : I (Jeho- 
vah) will punish you by the natural elements, by wild beasts, and by 
nations. "J will scatter you among the heathen." 

" If they shall confess their iniquity " * * *. " Then will I remember 
My covenant with Jacob," etc. Similar authoritative, parental, and per- 
sonal language is used in Deut. xxviii. " The Lord shall bring a nation 
against thee," vs. 49. Whether we understand the Romans or any other 
nation, the fact, that Jehovah is the power behind the visible throne, is 
distinctly enunciated. Nations are apparently under the supreme control 
of their visible chief ofl&cers. So Kings, Presidents, and Emperors think. 
So thought Nebuchadnezzar. — "Is not this great Babylon, that /have built 
for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor 
of my majesty? " But after eating grass for seven years, what does he say? 
" He (the Most High) doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, 
and (among) the inhabitants of the earth : and none can stay His hand or 
say unto Him, What doest Thou?" Dan. iv. 30. 35. The question we 
propound, is this, If God, then had, such power over the nations, has it been 
any less during the last eighteen centuries? Do His plans to carry out 
His divine purpose in the world's government require any less care and 
control? If His Hebrew family required His direct management and 
discipline for 1800 years before the incarnation of the Chief Heir, has it re- 
quired any less care and supervision for the last eighteen centuries, while 
they have been sifted among all nations " a hissing and a by-word ?" One 
other remark is here in place : The language and predictions of Moses 
which we have quoted belong to the Jews in their long captivity, or to 
their history of the last 18 centuries. It therefore settles the question as to 
God's controlling agency during this protracted captivity. 

That He exerts such a direct personal agency during this long period 
appears from Dan. xii. 1. 2. "And at that time (time of the end, Dan. xi. 
40.) shall Michael stand up, (Dan. x. 13. 21.) which standeth for the chil- 
dren of thy people ; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was 
since there was a nation, (even) to that same time : and at that time thy 
people (Jews — W.) shall be delivered, every one that shall be found writ- 
ten in the book. And many of them (whole house of Israel — W.) that 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and 
some to shame (and) everlasting contempt." That Jehovah was the pun- 



522 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ishing Father of the Jews during their long captivity, will appear from 
other predictions. " Then 1 will make thy plagues wonderful." "All the 
diseases of Egypt." "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people 
from the one end of the earth, even unto the other." These are sufficient 
to demonstrate God's direct agency over His chosen family during their 
protracted banishment. God made use of agents out of the physical, moral 
and political worlds to punish His erring family. They had trampled 
upon His laws, slain His prophets, cast His Son out of His vineyard and 
had put Him to death, saying, " His blood be on us and on our children," 
Justice, therefore, demanded their punishment. And they have suffered 
punishment. 

No people have ever been exposed to more dangerous enemies. Papal 
idolatry in the West, false prophets in the Middle, and Pagan idolatry in 
the East. Jehovah had said, " I will scatter you among all nations." They 
have made two national efforts against this declaration of Jehovah : (1) one 
under Hadrian ; (2) the second under the Moors in Spain. These were 
both terrible failures. They were afflicted by nations without, and by 
disease, wild beasts, and by false prophets and false Messiah's within. 
Such afflictions had to be shortened or the family would have become ex- 
tinct; for the elect's sake those days were shortened. In eltery severe per- 
secution God kept some land as a refuge. Yet they were so afflicted and 
persecuted, that they were always kept few in number. Originally a 
healthy and prolific race, the 18 centuries of expatriation should have 
swelled their numbers to not less than 500,000,000; but God said that they 
should be few, and they are few ; and have in every portion of that long 
period been few. The predictions of Jesus and Moses as to their sufferings 
have been carried out to the letter. Their amelioration has the same 
divine agency. Why is God thus showing favor to the Jews? and how 
and through what agencies is He accomplishing that work? The removal 
of Jewish disabilities is the work of Jehovah, instituted as one of His great 
plans to carry out His purpose relative to the Jews, and the establishment 
of the kingdom of His Son, th® Messiah. The visible agents at work to 
accomplish that end are numerous and varied in character. They all act 
as a unit, though ignorant of the power that controls them. In the middle, 
or dark ages, the Word of God, the enlightener, and the civilizing agent of 
our race, was locked up in the Papal safe. Human reason, therefore, had 
no moral element on which to act. The future as delineated by the old 
prophets of Jehovah, was a world of hopeless uncertainty, the minds of the 
masses continued in moral embryo. In this state the Jews were found and 
partook more or less of the age ; for that power that took the Scriptures 
from the masses, deprived the Jew also of his bible. In this state of the 
world, God applied His key to the safe, and the bible, the lamp of life, 
again appears among the people. Its light soon reveals the character of the 
Apostacy. The struggle of reason guided by the light of revelation began. 
But, as one extreme begets the other, reason ran riot. The apostate fetters 
were broken, and the Reformation was the child born of the first liberal 
movement. But unchained reason under the control of unbridled lust, 



HEBREW PHASE. . 523 

acknowledges no master, and the second organized effect assumes the shape 
of German and French rationalism, resulting in all the horrors of the 
French revolution. The results of these movements on the state of the 
Jews we have already seen. It gave them comparative freedom, and they 
have grown into favor among all enlightened nations, and have been 
taught this lesson, that they can have but one national home; and that 
territory is the land of Israel, which Jehovah says is His land : for His 
family the Hebrews, which land is mine saith Jehovah, and shall not be 
sold for ever. Lev. xxv. 23. 

Twelfth Epoch of Hebrew History. — History of the Jews (Judah) 
from A. D. 1885 to their return, and national establishment in the land of 
Israel under their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The eleven epochs of 
Hebrew history have had an undisputed existence. The certainty of the 
twelfth is, by some, a matter of uncertainty. We now propose to investi- 
gate the following question : Have the Hebrews a Future Distinct Na- 
tionality? This interrogatory proposition we affirm. 

Jesus said, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the 
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto 
you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matfc. v. 17, 18. The truth here taught 
is this, all divine laws and prophecies not yet fulfilled, or completed, will 
be fully accomplished in the future ; for, with Jehovah, the future being 
under His control, is as certain as the past. Profane history contains 
eleven Hebrew epochs ; prophetic history, twelve. The prophets wrote all 
the epochs in advance, since their history came direct from God. If, there- 
fore, prophetic and profane histories agree in eleven epochs, they will cer- 
tainly agree in the ^we^i^A. Prophetic histovy is a through-line ; profane his- 
tory falls short one epoch. Let us now call attention to the twelfth epoch 
of the through-line; for let it be remembered that the twelfth epoch of 
Hebrew history must be established by prophecy. God's past dealings 
with that people, however, furnish presumptive evidence of the future. 

(1) The first enunciation of the future existence of the Hebrew family 
is in Gen. iii. 15. " I will put enmity between thee (the serpent — W.) and 
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, 
and thou shalt bruise his heel." From that day to the present that war- 
fare has been in progress ; but who pretends to say that it is completed? The 
world is a seething caldron, in which dissimilar elements of good and evil 
with their innumerable advocates violently mingle without any admixture. 
The present state of society is evidence that this primary prophecy is in- 
complete. 

(2) The second prediction which we shall notice (it being very ancient) 
is in Deut. xxxii. 8. 9. " When the Most High divided to the nations their 
inheritance when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the 
people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's 
portion (is) His people; Jacob (is) the lot (cord or measuring line — W.) of 
his inheritance." That allotment of Canaan to Israel and God's choice of 
that people as the measuring line of his inheritance, were made many cen- 



524 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

turies before Israel had any existence, except in the pian of Jehovah, rela- 
tive to the future and eternal government of the earth by His Son, the 
regal seed of the woman. It is a clear intimation that His Son, Messiah, is 
the second ruling Adam ; for the first Adam was to give birth to the people, 
and also to the second Adam whose dominion was to be universal and ever- 
lasting. The Hebrew family have been expatriated from this divine 
national centre, some (the ten tribes) 2605 years, and the others (the Jews) 
1815 years. As that people are assigned by God to the centre of Messiah's 
empire, and are to constitute the huh of the great national wheel, it is very 
evident that the fulfillment of this prophecy is quite incomplete. That 
people, now, lost, or sifted among all nations, must be brought back to that 
land erected into a central kingdom. Jehovah's plan of universal empire 
requires it. 

(3) The third era of development in God's plan of universal govern- 
ment covers the time of the promise enunciated to Abraham's seed (Christ), 
Isaac, and Jacob. Gen. xii. 7; xiii. 14. 15; xxvi. 5; xxviii. 13. The first 
or primary promise deals with seeds only ; the second names the allotments 
of the earth relative to one family. In the third era of development, that 
which belongs to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a land is 
definitely stated ; and it is finally called an everlasting inheritance prom- 
ised first to the seed (Christ, Gal. iii. 16.), then to Abraham and his seed 
(Christ) ; then to Isaac and his seed (Christ) ; then to Jacob and his seed 
(Christ) ; for as Christ, the true Seed, was to be born of that family, Christ 
was as truly the Seed or Son of Jacob and of Isaac, as He was of Abraham ; 
and such He is called in Luke's genealogy. It is very certain that the ful- 
fillment of these prophecies is not complete, as Stephen testifies : "And He 
gave him (Abraham — W.) none inheritance in it (Canaan), no, not (so 
much as) to set his foot on : yet He promised that He would give it to him 
for a possession, and to his seed after him, when (as yet) He had no child." 
Acts vii. 5. Pau' understood that the fulfillment was to be perfected after 
the resurrection. See Acts xxvi. 6. 7. 8. He says in his epistle to the 
Hebrews, after enumerating a long list of worthies : "And these all, having 
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise (fulfillment 
of — W.). God having provided some better thing for us, that they without 
us should not be made perfect.' Heb. xi. 39. 40. The complete fulfillment 
of this third era of progressive development is still future ; and as it in- 
timately involves the destinies of the Hebrew family as a nation, that 
epoch, which is the twelfth, must be in the future. 

(4) The fourth era of progressive development of God's plan of uni- 
versal empire on earth for His Son brings to view a kingdom, of which for 
centuries God Himself was their only King. It is quite evident, that, 
since this terminated in a rebellion against their only lawful King, Jeho- 
vah, who gave them a sample of human rule, in the manner of a kingdom 
which began with Saul, and continued after David and Solomon, in its 
divided form under ten-tribed Israel to their captivity B. C. 720, and under 
Judah to the captivity in Babylon, and subordinately to the birth of Mes- 
siah, He will again clear His land of His enemies, and rule over Israel 



HEBREW PHASE. 525 

jointly with His Son through endless ages. The fourth era of development 
is therefore quite imperfect in its fulfillment. 

(5) Passing over many limited prophecies, we come to that which the 
learned Bishop Mede termed the "Almanac of prophecy," the metallic 
image and stone of Dan. II. As this vision is doubtless familiar to the 
reader, we shall limit our remarks to those points which illustrate and 
establish our position of a Hebrew future. It will not be disputed that 
Christ was a Jew, that His apostles and the first Christians were Jews 
(Hebrews at least). The stone that smote the image (the symbol of Gentile 
powers) was Christ, since He is called a stone by Isaiah xxviii. 16, and 
Peter. 1 Peter ii. 8; Ps. cxviii. 22. The mountain will be His kingdom. 
As the King is a Jew (though Gentile blood flowed in His veins, and was 
shed, to demonstrate Him to be the Savior of Jew and Gentile), His king- 
dom is a Jewish kingdom, and will partake largely of Hebrew blood. The 
point of proof which we desire to use is this. As the image still exists, the 
smiting and the increase of the stone to a mountain are future, and there- 
fore belong to the twelfth Hebrew epoch. 

(6) The prophecies of the Old Testament, which have no profane 
record of their fulfilment, form the sixth era of progressive development in 
Jehovah's national plan. They are the closing fragments of prophecy; 
conclusions of visions and inspired predictions, terminating in thoughts so 
similar and so grand as to carry conviction that they are all describing the 
same period, people, and triumphant reign, as different travelers picture 
the environs of the same beautiful and happy abode ; first a great conflict ; 
then rest, peace, and happiness. 

(a) Isaiah comes first in order. His first prediction that seems imper- 
fect in its accomplishment as viewed by the eleven epochs of profane his- 
tory, has the following : "And it shall come to pass in that day (see vs. 10 
— W.) (that) the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover 
the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from 
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, 
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea (Europe and its islands 
— W). And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble 
the outcasts of Israel (10 tribes — W.) and gather together the dispersed of 
Judah (two tribes — W.) from the four corners (quarters — W.) of the earth." 
Is. xi. 11-12. This was accomplished in Judah's (a small remnant of 25,- 
000 to 42,000 — W.) return from her 70 years' captivity in Babylon, or it is 
still future. But it does not belong to the Babylonian return for the follow- 
ing, among other reasons : (1) The expressions " again," " second time," 
" the remnant of His people," are such as forbid the coming out of Egypt to 
be called the first; since in Egypt they became a great nation." God spake 
unto Israel (Jacob — W.) in the visions of the night, and said, " I (am) 
God, the God of thy father, fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will make 
there of thee a great nation. And I will go down with thee into Egypt." 
Gen. xlvi. 2, 3, 4. "A Syrian ready to perish, my father ; and he went down 
into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, 
great, mighty, and populous." Deut. xxvi. 5. No " remnant " came out of 



526 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Egypt, it was a " nation, great, mighty and populous." The term " rem- 
nant " require us to make the return from Babylon the First. The fol- 
lowing expressions will not apply to the return from Babylon, viz. (1) 
" From the islands of the sea ; " "outcasts of Israel ; " "dispersed of Judah 
from the four quarters of the earth ; " " assemble," as applied to ten-tribed 
Israel, and " gather together," as applied to dispersed Judah. The terms 
assemble and gather together imply very different states. The 10 tribes 
never returned from their captivity, which was 134 years before Judah 
was carried into Babylon. The accounts of the return from Babylon 
show that a very small remnant (from 25,000 to 42,000 men) of Judah 
returned from that captivity, and those only of the countries east and 
north of Babylon. Josephus says, " The rulers of the two tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, went in haste to Jerusalem, 
yet did many of the people stay at Babylon as not willing to leave their 
possessions." " Thus did these men go, a certain and determinate number 
of them out of every family ; by this means a certain part of the people of 
the Jews that were in Babylon came and dwelt in Jerusalem ; but the 
rest of the multitude returned every one to their own country." Jose- 
phus has the following : " The ten tribes did not return to Palestine, 
only the two tribes served the Romans after Palestine became a Roman 
province." Josephus speaks again thus " Ezra read the epistles of 
Xerxes at Babylon to those Jews that were there ; and sent a copy of 
them to all those of his own nation that were in Media, and many of 
them took their effects with them and came to Jerusalem ; but then the 
entire body of the people of Israel remained in the country, wherefore 
there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while 
the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense mul- 
titude." It is quite certain then that this " second time " was not the re- 
turn from Babylon ; and as there has been no return of any kind since that 
second time must be still future and belongs, therefore, to the twelfth He- 
brew epoch. Isaiah's second prophecy in the list of unfulfilled remnant 
prophecies is found in Is. xix. 23, 24, 25. The confederacy of Egypt, As- 
syria, and Palestine under Jehovah. Of such a confederacy under Jeho- 
vah, with such a highway, we can find no record in profane history ; or in 
the first eleven epochs of Hebrew history. " In that day shall Israel be a 
third with Egypt and with Assyria, (even) a blessing in the midst of the 
land ; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed (be) Egypt my 
people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance. 
The highway out of Egypt to Assyria, causing a constant communication 
between those three countries, and serving Jehovah, Lord of hosts, will be 
something new in the eastern world. If Great Britain, with her sixty or 
more national colonies, be the seed of Ephraim which was to grow into " a 
multitude of nations " (Gen. xlviii. 19), for which position there is 
first-class proof, it would not be unreasonable to say that this prediction is 
now in process of accomplishment. As the nations are now arranged we 
shall place this prophecy as to its terminus in the twelfth prophetic epoch 
of the Hebrews. A third prophecy we select from Is. Ixv. and Ixvi. In 



HEBREW PHASE. 527 

chap. Ixv. from vs. 17 to 24, both inclusive ; and chap. Ixvi. vs. 22-25. The 
expressions " I create new heavens and a new earth ; " " the new heavens 
and the new earth which I will make;" "Jerusalem" "her people," with 
other terms expressive of the profound peace of that period ; added to the 
application made by Peter (2 Pet. iii. 13), and by John (Rev. xxi. 1) decide 
our location in the twelfth Hebrew epoch. Other passages might be selected 
from Isaiah ; but these are sufficient to illustrate our position and afford 
thought for the reader. 

(&) From Jeremiah we shall select other illustrations. The first is 
taken from Jer. xxiii. 5-9. " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I 
will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and 
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days 
Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; and this (is) His name 
whereby He shall be called, ' The Lord our Righteousness.' Therefore, be- 
hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say. The Lord 
liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; 
but the Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house 
of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I 
had driven them ; and they shall dwell in their own land." This is not 
the period that followed Judah's return from the Babylonian captivity; 
for they had no such asking ; neither had Judah such a reign. The Lord 
our righteousness is evidently the Messiah ; and the time is when " He 
executes judgment and justice in the earth." That time is still future ; for, 
A. D. 54, Paul said, " Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He 
will judge the world in righteousness by (that) man whom He hath or- 
dained ; (whereof) He hath given assurance unto all (men) in that He 
hath raised Him from the dead." Acts xvii. 31. Paul says " Messiah shall 
judge the living and the dead at His coming and kingdom." 2 Tim. iv. 1. 
The second example is in Jer. xxxi. 31-38. Our remarks will be confined 
to Jeremiah's illustrations of the perpetuity of the seed of Israel. " Thus 
saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, (and) the ordi- 
nances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth 
the sea when the waves thereof roar ; the Lord of hosts (is) His name. If 
those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, (then) the seed of 
Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus saith 
the Lord : If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the 
earth searched out, beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all 
that they have done, saith the Lord." The meaning of these illustrations 
are too explicit to require explanation. Israel's nationality is as sure and 
perpetual as the laws of nature. Israel's future nationality is therefore 
certain. 

(c) Ezekiel will furnish the third list of unfulfilled prophecies. This 
chain of predictions begins with the thirty-seventh chapter and extends 
through the book. The invasion of Gog ; his overthrow on the mountains 
of Israel ; the cleansing of the land (God's earthly abode or sanctuary) ; 
the divisions of the land, and their occupancy ; the establishment of its 
city, temple, and worship are beyond the terminus of profane history, and, 



528 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

therefore, belong to the twelfth epoch of Hebrew history. One item in this 
chain is worthy of special notice, the Union of Israel and Judah. The 
Jews (Judah) are known through the world by their countenance (Is. iii. 
9). Israel (10 tribes) is lost to the world, since their name Israel has been 
exchanged for another (see British Phase). The passage which establishes 
their union into one great nation is the following : " The word of the 
Lord came unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one 
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his com- 
panions ; then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick 
of Ephraim, and (for) all the house of Israel his companions. And join 
them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thy 
hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, say- 
ing, Wilt thoust not show us what thou (meanest) by these ? Say unto 
them, Thus saith the Lord God : Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, 
which (is) in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and 
will put them with him, (even) with the stick of Judah, and make them 
one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. And the sticks whereon thou 
writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus 
saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among 
the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and 
bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the 
land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them 
all ; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided 
into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves 
any more with idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their 
transgressions ; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, 
wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so shall they be my 
people, and I will be their God. And David, my servant, (shall be) king 
over them ; and they shall have one shepherd ; they shall also walk in my 
judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell 
in the land that I have given unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your fathers 
have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, (even) they, and their children, 
and their children's children forever ; and my servant David (shall be) 
their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them ; 
it shall be an everlasting covenant with them ; and I will place them, and 
multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever- 
more (chap. xlii. 7. Rev. xxi. 3. See xlviii. 21). My tabernacle (xliii. 7) 
also shall be with them ; yet I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people. And the heathen shall know that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel, 
when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore." Eze. 
xxxvii. 15-28. Our quotation is quite lengthy, but it would not have been 
proper to divide the thought. On this we make the following reflections. 
(1) This prophecy refers to Judah and Israel, and to no other people, since 
the sticks are expressly named Judah and Joseph, (Ephraim), and the 
Gentiles are marshalled under the standard of Gog. (2) The expressions, " I 
will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore;" "my tabernacle 
also shall he with them ; " these forbid our understanding these prophecies 



HEBREW PHASE. 529 

conditionally. " Will set,^^ and " shall be " are not conditional tenses. (3) 
What God here says will be more faithfully and literally accomplished. 
(4) Since profane history has no record of these events, which concern the 
entire population of the globe, we are forced to place them in the future. 
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
prophets till all be fulfilled. -] 

(d) Daniel's prophecies are principally through lines; and conse- 
quently have unfulfilled termini. The four Gentile monarchies symbolized 
by the metallic image of Dan. ii. and the four wild beasts have unaccom- 
plished fragments. Profane history has failed to measure them. They mustj 
therefore, belong to the twelfth Hebrew epoch of prophetic history. Daniel 
has a chain of prophecy occupying his eleventh and twelfth chapters, 
which it is well to consider. This prophetic chain has its first hook fas- 
tened to the Persian empire, and has already measured over twenty-four 
centuries without finding a terminus for the hook of the other extreme. 
That this chain of prophecy extends beyond a resurrection is certain from 
Dan. xii. 2. The point to which we call attention in this chain of prophecy 
is this, that it principally concerns the Hebrew family, especially in its ter- 
minus, Daniel's people are the objects of Michael's care. Who are Daniel's 
people ? Daniel being a Jew, his people were Jews as truly as an Eng- 
lishman's people are the English; the French are not the Englishman's 
people, neither are Gentiles, however pious, Daniel's people ; " an Israelite 
indeed in whom is no guile" (Jno. i. 47) would be one of Daniel's people 
in the highest sense. The principal event which cluster around the 
terminus of this prophecy are enunciated in chap. xii. 1, 2, 3. "And at 
that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the 
children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble (Jacob's trouble, 
Jer. XXX. 7), such as never was since there was a nation, (even) to that 
same time ; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that 
shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars forever and ever. Vs. 4. But thou, Daniel, shut up the words and 
seal the book, (even) to the time of the end ; many shall run to and fro, 
and knowledge shall be increased." Then follow various dates ; and the 
book closes with, " Go thy way till the end (be) ; for thou shalt rest, and 
stand in thy lot at the end of the days." .Daniel teaches very distinctly 
the destiny of his people in their twelfth epoch. 

(e) Hosea furnishes another through line of prophecy touching Hebrew 
history. The reader must keep in mind the object of research, to establish 
from the various Hebrew prophets the fact of a future, twelfth Hebrew epoch, 
profane history containing only eleven. In a word, prophetic history perfects 
the Hebrew history. Eleven epochs of Hebrew life are in the past ; one, 
the crowning epoch, is in the future. In the eleven, prophetic and profane 
history agree, the conclusion is inevitable, that the prophetic record of the 
twelfth is strictly true. These through lines, also delineate fully the character 

34 



530 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

of the twelfth epoch ; and from prophecy alone can we obtain any reliable 
knowledge of the Hebrew future. In Hos. iii. 4. 5., we have these words ; 
" For the children of Israel (ten tribes — W.) shall abide many days without 
a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, 
and without an epoch, and (without) teraphim ; afterward shall the children 
of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and 
shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.' Hosea's prophe- 
cies illustrate the following history of the ten tribes. They were first the 
wife of Jehovah (His land included). Through corrupt and long-protracted 
idolatry, God divorces her and drives her away from His home (Palestine), 
B. C. 720. Up to this time (A. D. 1885) they remain out of the land (which 
is theirs) unknown by her former name (Israel) and therefore still divorced 
— lo Ammi, not my people. The prophet describes another, a crowning 
epoch of their history. After being sufficiently punished for her unfaith- 
fulness to Jehovah, her former legal husband, on repentance, she is restored 
to her husband, and her land, or home, she is changed from lo Ammi, not 
my people, to Ammi, my people. That re-marriage is still future, but it is 
certain, for Jehovah hath declared it (see Matt. xxii. and Rev. xix). The 
prophet, therefore, gives the twelfth epoch of Hebrew History. 

(/) Amos furnishes another illustrative proof of the twelfth Hebrew 
epoch. In Amos ix. 11-15., it is said : " In that day will I raise up the 
tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I 
will raise up his ruins, and build it as in the days of old ; that they may 
possess the remnants of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by 
my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of 
grapes, him that soweth seed ; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, 
and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of 
Israel, my people, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit (them); 
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and they shall 
also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon 
their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I 
have given them, saith the Lord thy God." Vs. 9 is as follows : " For, lo, 
I will command, and I will sift the 'house of Israel among all nations, like 
as (corn) is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the 
earth." In vs. 12 : " The remnant of Edom " is called the " residue of 
men," Edom being in the Septuagint and Arabic, Adam (man). The idea 
seems to be the following : When the elect spirits of the Hebrew family 
are gathered back to their own land of Israel, where they shall forever 
dwell, under Messiah their King, as described by Ezekiel, xliii. to xlviii., 
a people gathered out from the Gentile nations, worshipers of the same 
Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, will be associated with the Hebrews in one 
glorious, peaceful, universal monarchy. The ethnology of that kingdom is 
distinctly set forth in Rev. vii. After John sees an angel seal twelve thou- 
sand out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, " He beheld, and lo, a great 
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb^ clothed 



HEBREW PHASE. 531 

with white robes, and palms in their hands " . . . . And it is answered, 
*' These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Such are 
the various elements that enter into the composition of that kingdom, of 
the stone (Messiah) which, grinding to dust all the Gentile monarchies, be- 
comes a great mountain, filling the whole earth. Amos' prophecy was 
uttered about B. C. 787 — 67 years before the captivity of the ten tribes, 2672 
years since. Judah was pulled up twice; but after this return, there will 
be no more removal. It will be seen that all these through lines, pass a 
period of unexampled suffering, which terminates in triumph, peace, and 
glory. Such did Simeon (not Simon Peter) see when he exclaims of the 
infant Jesus, "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people 
Israel." Lu. i. 32. 

(g) The last prophetic through line of prophecy of the Old Testament 
which we shall notice (though there are many others) is given by Zechariah. 
Chapters xii., xiii. and xiv. This prophet wrote while Judah was return- 
ing from the Babylonian captivity. While this is freely admitted, we are 
authorized to say, that his predictions are far-reaching and Hebrew in 
character. That the chain is a through line, will appear, by examining 
the last three chapters. In ch. i. 18., he sees four horns (Gentile monarch- 
ies) and is told. These (are) the horns that scatter Judah, Israel and Jerusa- 
lem. In Zech. xii. and xiii., events, connected with Judah and Jerusalem, 
are narrated, which have no record in profane history. See vss. 3., 7., 8., 9. 
and 10-14. of ch. xii. ; so also of ch. xiii. The e/ents of ch. xiv. lie wholly 
beyond the range of profane history. As these chapters are fully described 
in other parts of our works we shall, for the present, pass with but few re- 
marks. The events following vs. 4., ch. xiv., are certainly without any 
record in profane history, the advent of Christ, vs. 5., is not as the Babe of 
Bethlehem, but rather as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Once He ascended 
the Mount of Olives, and on its summit stood weeping, now He descends 
upon it, and with Him all holy ones ; and, as His feet touch the Mount, it 
trembles, and cleaves, and there is before Him a very great valley. That 
day is peculiar, neither day nor night. One Lord is over all the earth. 
Where is the history of these events? Neither RoUin, nor Gibbon, nor 
Josephus, nor any other profane historian, has given us any light on these 
events ; yet, when they transpire, what remote quarter of the globe will 
not have the news the same day ? But the warriors of the hostile nations 
are there, and see and hear with utter dismay. Judah is there, so is Israel, 
and all the nations that came against Jerusalem, are totally defeated. We 
may very safely locate these events in the future, or twelfth Hebrew epoch. 

(7) The seventh era of progressive development or New Testament 
witnesses. The New Testament prophetic declarations are all addressed to 
Jews, though they cover the ** times of the Gentiles." We shall now ex- 
amine the chief witnesses. 

(a) The predictions of Jesus of Nazareth. Before leaving His dis- 
ciples, He gave them a chain of prophetic history, which extends from the 
first proclamation of the Gospel to the return of Christ, this prophetic his- 



532 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tory is recorded by three evangelists. Matthew (ch. xxiv.), Mark (ch. xiii.), 
and Luke (ch. xxi). As these chapters are familiar, perhaps, to all, we shall 
simply state those points which prove the future of the Hebrews. The false 
prophets and Messiah's are found in every link (century) to His return. 
The chief Physical and Political signs belong the era of His return. The 
state of His professed disciples belong to the same era. As Luke names 
two classes of signs, we shall follow his narrative. His prophetic chain 
marks by signs two noted events : (1) The fall of Jerusalem (to vs. 20. ); 
(2) The return of Christ ; both these events are foreshadowed by certain 
signs. The signs that indicate the impending destruction of Jerusalem and 
of the Jewish nation are, ''Fearful sights, and great signs from heaven;" 
"Jerusalem compassed with armies" (as under Cestius Gallus — W.) The 
signs that presage Christ's return are, " Signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, 
the sea and the waves roaring; mens hearts failing them for fear, and for look- 
ing after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of 
heaven shall be shaken." Also the " Sign of the Son of man." This chain 
extends to the coming of Christ, but Jesus has not yet returned for He is the 
" certain Nobleman that went into a far country to receive for Himself a 
kingdom, and to return." Lu. xix. 12., 15. But, it may be asked, What 
has His return to do with the Hebrew nation? Much, every way. Luke 
says of the Jews, "And ye shall be led away captive into all nations ; and 
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles (it is still trodden down 
— W.) until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Lu. xxi. 24. This lan- 
guage means that the time allotted for Jerusalem to be held by the Gentiles 
is fixed, and will expire, after which Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, and occu- 
pied by its original owners, the Hebrews. This view is established by what 
Christ said to His apostles : "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto 
you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration (times of restitu- 
tion of all things, Ac. iii. 21.) ('the new condition of all things in the 
reign of Messiah '), when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His 
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel." Matt. xix. 28. For this occupancy of the land of Israel by "Jesus 
on the throne of His glory," and the " twelve apostles on twelve thrones 
judging the twelve tribes " we certainly have now profane record, they 
must, therefore, belong to the future or to the twelfth Hebrew epoch. The 
conclusion is inevitable. 

(&) The testimony of Paul in his epistle to the Romans, ch. xi., is 
direct and explicit. Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of 
Benjamin ; yet he was the apostle of the Gentiles. These truths will ac- 
count for his plain manner of reproving their pride, and boasting over the 
fallen Jews. Paul divides all mankind into two families. Hebrew (here 
called Jew, since the ten tribes had been scattered for nearly eight centuries, 
Judah alone holding to the outward ordinances), and the Gentile, including 
all the other races. These two families Paul represents by two olive trees, 
springing up out of the earth ; the one planted in a garden, and cultivated 
for the fruit ; the other a wild, uncultivated olive tree. After years and 



HEBREW PHASE. '533 

centuries of cultivation, many branches became unfruitful, and by the dresser 
of the Olive garden, were removed. In order, therefore, that his olive tree 
might yield a remunerative harvest, he supplies the places of the removed 
limbs by the healthy branches of the wild olive tree. These wild olive 
branches being removed from the olive tree growing up amidst the wilds 
and uncultivated deserts of nature to a beautiful and highly cultivated 
garden and grafted into the cultivated and fat olive tree, whose own un- 
fruitful branches, severed from its own native trunk, lay scattered about 
and withering, began to boast over those amputated branches, saying quite 
incorrectly they were removed to give room for us! Paul, a Jew corrects 
this Gentile boasting, giving the true causes of the changes, and cautions 
these wild branches against their incorrect and boastful reasoning, by 
stating that these branches, failing to draw proper nourishment from the 
roots of their own olive tree, became unfruitful and, for that reason, were 
cut off, and cautioned the wild branches not to boast. Since they did not 
sustain the root, but that their life and fruitfulness depended on their inti- 
mate connexion with the root ; that if they were not fruitful, they would 
be cut ojEF, and that God was able to graft in again these natural branches 
if they showed the living principle (faith). As it would be more natural 
for the cultivated olive tree to have its own branches. The questions that 
concern us at present are. Did God promise to restore the natural branches? 
And if He did, what locality or garden were they to occupy ? These ques- 
tions Paul did answer, in our view at least. Those questions are satisfac- 
torily answered in vss. 25. and 26. " For I -would not, brethren, that ye 
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own con- 
ceits; that blindness in part, is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentiles become in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written. 
There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungod- 
liness from Jacob." These last words are taken from the Septuagint of Is. 
lix, 20. That prophecy had not been fulfilled in the days of Paul ; and as 
no event since that day is claimed as its fulfillment, it must have its ac- 
complishment in the future, and consequently belongs to the twelfth epoch 
of Hebrew history. The second question is, Where are they restored to their 
own olive tree ? What locality or garden, or vineyard does the tame, cul- 
tivated olive tree occupy? or is the whole world the vineyard in Paul's 
view, so that wherever a Jew is converted he enters the Church and is 
grafted into the tame olive tree, and is in God's olive garden, or His vine- 
yard ? These thoughts open up a subject of great interest, one that properly 
investigated, will throw much light on the future of mankind relative to 
the Messiah's kingdom in its elementary construction. That His kingdom 
will be composed of an elect people out of the Hebrew and Gentile families 
is quite certain; and that is to an inheritance of eternal life and general 
privileges, both families and both sexes will share ; for " there is neither 
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor 
female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. "And if ye (be) Christ's, then are 
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs, according to the promise, for 3'^e are all the 
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Gal. iii. 26, 28. 29. But that 



534 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

all will be equal, fill equal stations, and have their special residence in the 
same locality of Messiah's empire, will require divine proof. Order, in the 
future Universal empire forbids such a thought. It annihilates every notion 
of a kingdom. The elements of a kingdom " set up " are, at least, the fol- 
lowing: (1) Territory; (2) subjects; (3) officers; (4) laws; (5) a presiding 
officer, or officers. Citizens are not equal, in nature, rank, nor local position. 
Paul teaches inequality in that resurrection kingdom ; for he says : "(There 
is) one glory of the sun, another glory the moon, and another glory of the 
stars; for (one) star diflfereth from another star in glory" (brightness). 
And of that state Daniel says: "They that be wise (teachers) shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
ness as the stars for ever and ever." The officers of that kingdom are often 
named. 

" I will make thine (Zion's in Jerusalem iv.) officers peace and thine 
exactors righteousness." Beginning with what Paul quotes from Is. lix. 
20. : " The Redeemer shall come to Zion " (see Rom. xi. 26.) and extending 
through the book, Jehovah has given a most graphic picture of Messiah's 
future reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. No past reign on Mount Zion, 
which succeeded the time of the delivery of this prophecy (B. C. 712), can 
claim any resemblance to the glory, peace and righteousness of this domin- 
ion whose throne is on Mount Zion in the land of Israel. Pause here and 
read those chapters. Jesus is called the " glory (brightness) of His people 
Israel." Here Zion the Seat of Empire and of the " Mountain " kingdom 
receives its majestic King. Hence the beauty and appropriateness of the 
following expressions : " Shine," for thy (Jerusalem's) light is come and the 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." " Gentiles shall come to thy light, 
and kings' to the brightness of thy rising." " The forces of the Gentiles 
shall come unto thee." " I will glorify the house of my glory." " Thy 
gates shall be open continually." " They shall call thee The City of the 
Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel." " Thy Savior and Thy Re- 
deemer, the mighty One of Jacob." " Violence shall no more be heard in 
thy Land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call 
thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise : The sun shall no more go down ; 
neither shall the moon withdraw itself: for the Lord, shall be thine ever- 
lasting light ; and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." " Thy peo- 
ple (shall be) all righteousness: they shall inherit the land forever, the 
branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A 
Little One shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation : I 
thee Lord will hasten it in His time." These are a few of the many speci- 
mens. One other will close our remarks on this prophetic sketch of Jeru- 
salem ; its land ; its king, and his reign. And the Gentiles shall see thy 
righteousness, and all kings thy glory ; and thou shalt be called by a new 
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt no more be 
termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; 
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her margin) and thy 
land Beulah (married margin) : for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land 
shall be married. For (as) a young man marrieth a virgin (so) shall thy 



HEBREW PHASE. 535 

sons marry thee: and (as) the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride (so) shall 
thy God rejoice over thee. Is. Ixii. 2, 4, 5. The points to be kept in view, 
principally, are these (1) The beginning of this glorious reign, quoted by 
Paul (Rom. xi. 26), he declares Future in his days; (2) The family names 
Israel and G-entile, are kept distinct through the entire reign ; (3) The 
names of city (of Zion or Jerusalem) land of Israel, God of Israel, seas and 
Gentile lands and Gentile kings are also kept distinct; (4) The names 
show conclusively that the Metropolis of this empire is Jerusalem, and the 
land is related to Jerusalem, as the District of Columbia to Washington 
City ; (5) Jerusalem (the holy) is the Geographical, Political and Religious 
capital of the future kingdom of Messiah, the imperial eternal centre. The 
land of promise is God's land " that shall not be sold, (Ex. xxv. 23) ; God's 
vineyard, in which He planted the noble vine (Jer. ii. 21; Is. v. 15; Ps. 
Ixxx. 8) that he brought out of Egypt : God's olive garden, in which he 
planted and cultivated the fruitful olive tree: Jer. xi. 16; God's bride: Is. 
Ixii. 4. 5 ; God's sanctuary : Ex. xv. 17. For that place on earth which God 
has appointed as His special dwelling place is His sanctuary. The kingdom 
of the stone, Judah's Lion, constituted of the elect of the Hebrew family, 
joined by the elect of the Gentiles becomes a mountain and fills the whole 
earth, with its throne and king on Mount Zion and its central family in 
the land of promise (Israel) is seat of empire at Jerusalem. The saved of 
the Gentiles occupying the fields allotted to them over the earth. Messiah's 
empire will exercise dominion over all lands and righteousness shall be 
universal; (8) Events of the twelfth Hebrew epoch which belong to their 
history. We have given their prophetic history through this epoch. The 
same prophecies delineate its character. Every element of that crowning 
epoch can be most distinctly seen and read. Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah 
of the Old Testament, and Jesus, Paul and John of the New present life- 
scenes of that era. The quotations already given from these five persons, 
adding to them, if you please, Jeremiah, Hosea and Amos, and you have a 
text-book of intense interest on that epoch. The vestibule of that temple 
of living regal glory is dark and tempestuous. Heavy masses of columnar 
clouds, lit up by electric flashes, succeeded by deep tempest thunder, shuts 
down at times the obscure signs of day-dawn; then again these heavy 
masses, breaking, give to the scoffer some faint reason to exclaim : " All 
things continue as they were from the beginning." To live and move in 
this vestibule is peculiarly grand. The flashes may, at times, blind us . 
and the deep roar of the coming tempest may alarm our imperfect natures, 
but we smile at the sight of the glory beyond the storm : " For eye hath not 
seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Cor. ii. 8; (waiteth 
for Him. Is. Ixiv. 4.) We are living amid the signs of the coming tempest 
and following endless day. Happy indeed are they who, discerning the 
signs, make due preparation for the coming events, that that day does not 
overtake them as a thief. We do not propose to enter into an extended in- 
vestigation of the Hebrew history of this their future epoch. This will 
come up in our general summary and conclusion. We shall name some of 



636 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

the principal events, adding brief explanatory illustrations, leaving the 
reader time to investigate those prophecies already named. (1) The signs 
of the Redeemer's coming to Zion as stated by Paul, Rom. xi. 26; taken 
from Is. lix., 20, will brighten and increase in number and interest until 
they culminate in the Advent itself. The fig-tree and the sign of the Son 
of man in heaven terminate the series. The fig-tree illustration is about as 
follows : Jesus had named many phenomena, physical, national and moral, 
and then closes with this illustration relative to the fig-tree. This idea 
Christ expresses ; the list of signs which I have mentioned, marks my near 
return, as the putting forth of leaves on the fig-tree indicates the near 
approach of summer. It is not given as a sign of Christ's coming, but of 
near summer. The phenomenon here called The Sign of the Son of Man 
in heaven, is the culmination of all the phenomena previously given, as is 
indicated by its efiects : And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. 
This sign is of such a cast that it grows more powerful and convincing till 
the Son Himself appears ; the evidence conveyed by this sign is cumulative. 
What is this last sign ? We shall not pretend to review the many answers 
given. By the expression " Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven " it is gen- 
erally held to be some Celestial phenomenon. It is not said that the sign 
should be in heaven, but that the Son of man is in heaven. The simili- 
tude of this sign is the light of sun-rising. The rising and coming of the 
Son of man. The Sun of Righteousness is like the rising of the sun of our 
planetary system. The sun-rising is preceded by a space of time called day- 
dawn, "not day nor night:" it is a mixture of the elements of each. The 
night-darkness and its attendant elements linger still before the light 
scouts of the king of day as he is coming up from the chambers of the 
East. Clouds skirting the horizon at the place of sun-rise apparently pro- 
tract its rise. Suddenly a rent in the vapor-pall discloses his royal bright- 
ness. Casting aside his cloud-vestments he shoots forth his beams of glory 
over wakening millions of earth. We are, by the testimony of all prophets, 
approaching a stormy sun-rise. The Son of man (Sun of righteousness 
Matt. iv. 2), long since seated at the right hand of the divine Majesty, hav- 
ing about finished his priestly office in the Most Holy is now moving to- 
wards His sun-rising. In the heavens and on the earth are the heralds of 
His coming; signs of His approach, shadows of events which will admit of 
no delay. As Jehovah is moving those who, among others, are to meet the 
bridegroom when He comes to Zion (Is. lix. 20.) The most noted sign of His 
approach becomes more and more distinct, carrying conviction by a move- 
ment, not to be mistaken, that the day-spring from on high will soon reveal 
the Sun of righteousness with healing in His beams. The Redeemer will 
soon come to Zion. This is another great event of the twelfth Hebrew 
epoch. It is there that He will meet His covenant people Israel. The law 
goes forth from Zion and the edicts from Jerusalem. There she stands un- 
der her new name, " Jehovah-Shammah. The Lord (is) there. Eze. xlviii. 
35. These events evidently mark the consummation of the twelfth Hebrew 
epoch. That Jehovah here reigns over a Hebrew city and empire is evi- 
dent from the language of the prophetic description. The elect of the 



HEBREW PHASE. 537 

twelve tribes are there judged by the twelve apostles sitting on twelve 
thrones (around the Redeemer's throne of glory), judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel. Matt. xix. 28. ; Luke xxii. 28, 30. ; 1 Cor. vi. 23. ; Rev. ii. 26. 
Another passage will prove this great centre of Messiah's empire to be 
strictly Hebrew. In the beginning of land divisions, (Eze. xlvii. 13,) it is 
thus written, " Thus saith the Lord God ; This (shall be) the border, where- 
by ye shall inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel, Joseph 
(shall have two) portions." This must be noticed. This empire under the 
new organization recognizes two families (a) the Hebrew family as the tame 
olive tree with some elect branches of its own; (b) The wild olive branches 
graffed into the cultivated olive tree. In Eze. xlvii. 21, 22, 23, ''So shall ye 
divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel. And it shall 
come to pass (that) ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you 
and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children 
among you : and they (the Gentiles — W.) shall be unto you as born in the 
country among the children of Israel ; they shall have inheritance with you 
among the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass (that) in what tribe 
the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give (him) his inheritance, saith the 
Lord." (See Eph. ii. 12, 13.; iii. 6.; Rev. vii. 9, 10.; Acts xv. 9.; Rom. x. 
12.; Gal. iii. 28.; Col. iii. 11.) It will be seen that that kingdom and the 
land belong to the Hebrew family to which it was originally given, that the 
Gentiles are simply scions from the wild or strange olive tree grafifed into 
the tame olive tree and partaking of its root and fatness. It is not difficult to 
see that in the Messiah's empire (Christ Himself being a Jew), what family 
is the chief occupant of the land of Israel since its divisions, (12) are He- 
brew and the twelve apostles (all Hebrews) are the associate judges. These 
facts should not excite the jealousy of the Gentiles, since "salvation is of 
the Jews." John iv. 22. (See Is. 3. ; Rom. ix. 5.) Salvation and the Bible 
are of the Hebrews. The return of Israel and Judah and their union into 
one nation are the beginnings of the twelfth Hebrew epoch. The incipient 
steps of these movements are now visible in the Great Eastern Coloniza- 
tion Movement. A sketch of this enterprise will now be given. Its 
primary object is to colonize the Jews in Palestine preparatory to their 
Nationalization. Its history is brief. The enterprise is yet an infant 
struggling with poverty. It has been but a few years since the scheme lay 
in embryo. In the early years of this century, soon after the fall of Papal 
civil domination, it was evident that Jehovah was about to announce the 
century-slumbering truth that the " time to favor Zion, yea, the set time," 
(Ps. Cii. 13.) was soon to dawn. Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel, began to 
move upon the hearts of a few choice spirits among the Jews. Of these Sir 
Moses Montefiore, now in his one hundred and first year, is now dead. This 
modern Moses was born in London A. D. 1784, of a wealthy Jewish family of 
bankers. In 1810 he married into the family of the Rothschilds. In 1829 he 
made his first visit to Palestine and became deeply interested in the Jews 
of the land of Israel. He made seven visits to the Fatherland, distributing 
on each occasion princely bounties. He assisted the Jews in Poland and in 
other parts of Europe, especially in Russia, where in 1846 he influenced the 



538 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Czar Nicholas in ameliorating their condition. Sir Moses, in 1863, abtained 
a firman from the emperor of Morrocco which afforded protection to the 
Jews in his dominions. The efiorts of Sir Moses Montefiore have always 
been simply to ameliorate the condition of his race, and is, therefore, 
pre-eminently Jewish. He is a Jew, believing only in Judaism. Sir Moses, 
though a friend to the colonization movement, has never been one of 
its apostles. There are at present two classes of agents working for and among 
the Jews : (1) Those that are laboring for their colonization as Jews with- 
out any regard to their religious creed ; (2) and those who are using strenu ■ 
ous efforts for their conversion to Christianity. The former class is com- 
posed of individuals who act as agents; societies who work up the home in- 
terests and furnish money; and editors and publishers who circulate the 
necessary information. The conversionists are well organized, have means 
and sustain a mission at Jerusalem. Colonization is progressing and the 
the enterprise is assuming very considerable proportions. Like the cloud 
of Elijah, it is yet but "A little cloud" out of the sea of nations, like a man's 
hand visible in the eastern heavens to those living amid the " islands of the 
great West ; but Jehovah is hastening the growth of that cumulus by gath- 
ering into it the vapor elements from the west, till it will develop into a 
storm whose blackening face shall reveal the Son of man in His glory. As 
that little increasing cloud was to Elijah, a sure sign of coming rain, so the 
gathering of the Jews in colonies (" unwalled villages ") is a sign (if not the 
sign) of the coming of the Son of man in His kingdom. Its testimony is 
cumulative and certain. This colonization of the Jews, considered as a 
sign, will be more fully discussed in our general conclusion. The number 
of Jews now gathered into colonies, "unwalled villages," in Palestine is 
already equal to the number gathered from Babylon under Ezra and 
Nehemiah. 



AMERICAN PHASE. 



The discovery of America gave a new hemisphere to man for thought 
and enterprise, visions of gold were mingled with schemes for the speedy- 
evangelization of the New World. Missionaries and gold hunters freighted 
on the same West India vessels, dreaming of undeveloped Eldorados in the 
unexplored wilds of the New Continent. But it is not our province to 
trace this gold excitement, as it spread over Spain, through Europe and the 
Eastern world. Our mission is to trace the foot-prints of the Deity, as He 
drives human thought and action towards the sun-setting. The fulness of 
time had come when a new man had to be created to occupy and develop 
this great Western field; this last reserve of Jehovah, this new chemical 
laboratory, in which the elements of human power and greatness were to 
be so changed and recombined as to evolve man in his highest type, pre- 
paratory to the glory of the endless reign of Messiah. These propositions 
will claim our attention : (1) The agents employed by God to discover the 
New World. (2) The land itself, and (3) the new man created for its 
occupancy and development. (4) Its bearings on the Eastern Question. 
We shall necessarily consult extreme brevity on each of the four topics. 

I. The Agents. — The advanced state of commerce and navigation 
gave them the immediate agent of the discovery, and the final triumph of 
the cross over the crescent furnished, the necessary funds of equipment. 

(1) The chief agent of the discovery, Christopher Columbus (Christ- 
bearer dove), was a native of Genoa (born about A. D. 1436). Of his early 
years little is known. Born in obscurity of a wool-comber, his early edu- 
cation was at the great institution at Pavia, where he developed a taste for 
astronomy and cosmography. He seemed born, however, for the ocean, 
and was soon on the waters of the Mediterranean, the primary of school of 
his nautical education. In 1470 he removed to Lisbon, at that time the 
centre of navigation and new geographical enterprises. At Lisbon he mar- 
ried the daughter of an Italian, who had distinguished himself in the 
Portuguese navigation. Here he made himself familiar with the maps 
and charts of his father-in-law, and constructed many new ones. In this 
occupation was conceived the darling thought of his life, a western land as 
the extension of Asia — the western voyage (route) to Asia. This idea, 
henceforth, haunted him. All his investigations had it as their luminous 
centre. He made voyages along the western coast of Africa to fit him for 
the great voyage into the western ocean. In 1442 his scheme was presented 
to John II., king of Portugal, who laid it before a body of nautical and 
scientific men, and by them it was rejected. Secretly, however, the king 
taking advantage of the knowledge gained from Columbus, dispatched a 
vessel to test its worth. The timidity of the crew made it a failure, and 
(539) 



540 THE EASTEKN QUESTION, 

brought ridicule upon the project. Disgusted with the duplicity of the 
king, he in 1448 secretly left Portugal for Genoa. This republic treated his 
scheme as the "silly product of a visionary brain." He was disappointed 
but not discouraged. He believed that God had ordained him to plant the 
standard of the cross upon those unknown, vision shores. When God 
commissions for the accomplishment of a certain work, the person thus 
appointed has the testimony of its source from the commission itself. It is 
this evidence possessing the entire being that gives him such persevering 
courage. 

Leaving his native land with his motherless boy Diego, he directs his 
steps towards Spain. Arrived in that country, weary and hungry, he calls 
at the gate of the Franciscan convent of La Rabidi in Andalusia, to beg 
some bread and water for his child. Here he had reached the nadir in the 
revolving wheel of fortune. His trials now took an upward turn. The 
superior of the convent, entering into conversation with the stranger, was 
delighted with the grandeur of his scheme, and used his influence to pro- 
cure for him the favorable consideration of the king and queen, Ferdinand 
and Isabella. Seven years expired, during which he applied and failed at 
other courts, before he succeeded. The war with the Moors (under the 
crescent) being terminated successfully, Isabella was prepared to listen to 
the scheme of Columbus. When about ready to pawn the crown jewels to 
obtain the necessary funds, a man by the name of Saint Angel appeared 
and furnished her the money. This queen Isabella is very highly exalted 
by Spanish historians. "By Isabella was accomplished the grandest event 
of European policy, the expulsion of the crescent; and through Isabella 
the most prodigious event of humanity, that which doubled its terrestrial 
domain." " It seems as if heaven had raised her for two purposes, — the over- 
throw of the crescent and the discovery of the New World," Spanish His- 
tory. " Without reservation I declare that nature has never produced and 
that Providence has never crowned with a diadem, a woman who can com- 
pare to Isabella, the Catholic," Bishop K. S. Arevalo. " In the worlds of 

OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM, THE SUN NEVER CLOTHED OR ILLUMINATED HEB 

EQUAL," Cardinal Ximines. (From the International Standard, Vol. 2, 
No. 5.) That Isabella was appointed by Jehovah for the purpose of carry- 
ing out His plans in discovering and peopling the new world, and checking 
the universal triumph of the crescent, may be readily admitted, while her 
devoted Christian piety may be seriously questioned. As all the decrees of 
Ferdinand had to be signed by Isabella (while she lived), it made her per- 
sonally responsible for their results, she therefore participated in his cruelty 
to the suffering Jews. It is no apology that she gave them a new hemis- 
phere as a refuge, when they were allowed to take neither gold nor silver 
out of the country, and the edict of Ferdinand and Isabella required all 
the Jews to become Christians or leave the country within four months, 
when Isabella knew, that at that time nearly every land was closed against 
them. Not less than 500,000 were thus banished, resulting in horrors second 
only to those under Titus. God makes use of wicked agents (He does not 
make them wicked) to accomplish His purposes. He makes the wrath of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 541 

man to praise Him, the surplus He restrains as injurious to His plans in 
the world's government. No reasonable doubt can exist as to Divine 
agency in opening up the new world for the occupancy of a race that would 
be able to develop its resources. To the Spanish families it was traversed 
principally for its rich mines of silver and gold, and as a field for Roman 
Catholic missions. Hence South America was the first location of the 
Spanish colonies, also Mexico in the more temperate parts of North 
America, but when the family of its future Rulers wanted a home from 
oppression, and where they might erect the western temple of civil and 
religious liberty and of social equality, another land, a country where the 
colder climate would develop human intellect and active enterprise was 
indicated by Jehovah. 

On the 3d of August, 1492, with three small vessels, two being without 
decks, and with 120 men, Columbus (Colombo, Italian) set sail from the 
bar of Saltes, near Palos, occujjying one month at the Canaries to refit. 
On September 6th he committed himself to the pathless deep of the 
unknown ocean of the West. On the 12th of October land was discovered. 
On an island which he named San Salvador, he erected the cross. Several 
other voyages were made by Columbus, which we shall not describe. The 
new world is opened to Europe, yet Columbus dies in poverty, robbed of all 
his honors, even of naming the land of his discoveries. Of Columbus it 
may truly be said, he was the prince of navigators, and appointed to dis- 
cover the new world. We seriously question, however, the truth of one of 
his Scripture applications: "God made me (Columbus — W.) the messenger 
of the new heaven and the new earth of which He spoke in the Apocalypse 
of St. John, after having spoken it by the mouth of Isaiah, and He showed 
me where to find it." — Columbus^ Letter. In Isaiah God says, "For, behold, 
I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remem- 
bered, nor come into mind." (Is. Ixv. 17, see the whole description.) In Is. 
Ixvi. 22, it is said, "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I 
will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and 
your name remain." The new earth with its new heavens were not then 
(A. M. 3292) created. And Peter said (A. M. 4069), "Nevertheless w:e, 
according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness" (the righteous), 2 Pet. iii. 13. John, looking to 
the extreme of the prophetic field, exclaims, "I saw a new heaven and a 
new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and 
there was no more sea," (the sea was not). The Geological construction of 
America is too ancient to satisfy the conditions of the new creation. Its 
population does not suit. 

(2) The land itself as a late field for occupancy and national develop- 
ment; its physical structure and resources will form the basis of some 
general reflections. 

a) Why was the Western world kept hid so long from human intelli- 
gence and enterprise? The reasons will be developed as we progress. It 
now demands our notice as one of man's abodes : as a dwelling place for 
man in one of his most advanced eras of civilization. 



542 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

The land surface of the Eastern hemisphere is about 35,700,000 square 
miles, while the land surface of the Western hemisphere contains only about 
16,000,000 square miles. In the Eastern hemisphere and on the largest 
grand division of the globe (Asia, containing 17,000,000 square miles) began 
the human race, a cosmopolite : — a citizen of the world. Here was his cradle, 
his infancy, here and in Africa he attained to the years of manhood. Great 
national developments of later times required Europe to be next opened up 
as a field for human progress and race or family development. But when these 
old countries became too worn, corrupt, and too enslaved: — too old, and worn 
out in its ideas and thought, and too inimical to the advancement of liberty 
and liberal principles, America was discovered and opened up, especially as a 
land of liberty, an asylum for the poor and oppressed of the Eastern world. 
What is America ? Its locality first attracts our attention. It is a land of 
ocean birth and solitude. In early Geological ages, a few rock islands were 
the only visible messengers of a risirg continent. Then its dorsal ridge 
parting the waters from equator towards the poles for thousands of miles, 
located and shaped this western world — a world — an only begotten ocean 
child of the vast pacific. Its shores, are made the sport of four oceans, yet 
along the imperial belt (north temperate zone), sufficiently distant to be 
the world's asylum, and the great Western University for the development 
of Latter-day thought. To carry out his great national purpose, Jehovah 
makes use of the most wise national plans. 

b) The location of the American continent naturally leads us to view 
its Shape. Its extent towards the four cardinal points gives it a peculiar 
significant form, quite unlike the grand divisions of the Eastern world. 
In the Eastern hemisphere about 30,000,000 square miles of Asia, Africa, 
and Europe lie in somewhat of a compact mass and of such shape as to 
produce deserts and immense regions destitute of natural irrigation, such 
as Saharah in Africa, and Gobi in central Asia, such immense deserts can- 
not be found in America, owing to its average length compared with its 
mean width. There is comparatively but little waste land in America. 
The length of the Western continent north and south, gives every variety 
of climate necessary to adapt it for the world's asylum and university. 
The mountains are admirably arranged for a very complete system of irri- 
gation. There is the rocky spine with its lateral ribs giving rise to 
innumerable short streams, which discharge their waters into the Pacific 
ocean, while on the East flow immense rivers, fertilizing a vast extent of 
territory to the East, South and North, where the country is wide. There 
are shorter parallel ranges, which collecting and condensing the vapors of 
the great Pacific or Atlantic oceans, send it down their slopes, which by in- 
numerable channels waft it through the plains. To prevent an immense 
desert east of the base of the Rocky Mountains, by the winds having their 
vapor principally precipitated by passing over three high mountain ranges 
in their Eastern journey from the Pacific, the God of nature has provided 
admirable means to restore their moisture. The wind from the Gulf of 
Mexico and from the Southeast Atlantic, meeting the cold waves from the 
northern lakes and mountains, produce a storm belt which is constantly 



AMERICAN PHASE. 54S 

moving into a higher or lower latitude, as the one or the other chances to 
be the stronger. This Divine arrangement is the salvation of the Missis- 
sippi valley. It brings the timely and genial showers, which supply 
moisture for the endless variety of animal and vegetable organisms. God 
has also provided means for the irrigation of the Atlantic slopes. Its 
shape is, therefore, admirably adapted to the easy sustenance of a "great 
people." Its climatic arrangements, its soil, its happy alternation of land 
and water fits it for the abodes of advanced civilization. They indicate an 
abode not designed for savages such as our Indians. Such a country is 
America Geographically considered. What are its mineral resources ? On 
its mineral wealth it is not necessary to dwell. Every intelligent Ameri- 
can is prepared to testify to the immense mines of gold, silver, copper, zinc, 
lead, iron, coal, etc., that are so distributed that the mining population are 
conveniently supplied with all the necessaries of happy living. Such can 
be said of the American continent as a whole, compared with the other 
grand divisions of the globe. What then is true of the territory held as 
the seat of the great American Republic ? It occupies the choicest field of 
the continent. Its territory as to latitude is the continuation of the old 
imperial belt through the new world. It lies principally between lat. 30° 
and 46° north, and long. 70° to 125° west, extending from the gulf of 
Mexico on the South to the great lakes and British dominions on the 
North. Its Eastern shores are lashed by the Atlantic waves and its 
Western coasts by those of the Pacific. With a territory about the size of 
all Europe (E. 3,800,000 sq. mis., and U. S. A. 3,600,000 sq. mis.), it pos- 
sesses all the local and climatic advantages of that densely populated grand 
division. Its surface and mineral resource are beyond any ordinary com- 
putation. Its agricultural and commercial advantages are also of the 
higher order. No person can examine the physical structure of the terri- 
tory of the great American Republic, its oceans, gulfs, lakes and rivers, its 
mountain chains, detached mountains, its hills, valleys and plains, without 
being impressed with the Unity op Purpose in the Divine Mind of its 
Creator. It was formed to be the home of one "great people" and not of 
two or more. The natural channels of commerce, the agricultural resources 
and the manufacturing facilities clearly indicate the same unity, one 
"great people," not a multitude of States, distracted and torn by ambition 
and conflicting interests. This unity of purpose in the mind of Jehovah 
will further appear as we progress. 

(3) The new man formed to occupy and develop the Western Con- 
tinent. We have seen far back in the Geological Ages, the arm of Jehovah 
outstretched over the great western ocean, at that time unbroken by a soli- 
tary island. Presently small points of land begin to dot the vast expanse 
of waters ; then is seen rising above this hemisphere of waters, the dorsal 
ridge of the western field for human occupancy and latter-day develop- 
ment ; located not in mid-ocean, but so far distant from Asiatic empires, and 
so near to Europe, the western division of the old world, as to indicate the 
origin of its future dominant race. We have seen this western continent 
in its location, solitary; its shape adapted to a high degree of human cul- 



544 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

ture ; and furnislaed with all necessary physical resources for the sustenance 
of an immense people. In its structure, in its systems of mountains, hills, 
valleys and plains ; in its ocean, lake, and river systems. We have traced 
a unity in Jehovah's plan of its settlement ; that the Creator of this western 
field designed it not to be occupied by numerous petty states, but to be 
settled and developed by one dominant race, that should shape its pil- 
grim population into one great people preparatory to Messiah's reign. 
Viewing America, and especially the territory of the great Republic, in its 
physical aspects, it is an extraordinary country, well adapted to develop an 
extraordinary people. To give birth to such a people, what race of the old 
world was in any degree competent? View the races, which, before the 
European discovery of America, occupied the old fields. They are usually 
divided into five races. (1) Caucasian, or white race ; (2) The Ethiopian, 
or black race; (3) The Mongolian, or yellow race ; (4) The Malay, or brown 
race ; (5) And the American Indian, or red race. The Indians were here 
when America was first discovered by the Europeans. Their mode of 
life demonstrated their inability to produce any advance in civilization, 
or to develop its resources, and consequently not the people whom Je- 
hovah had intended for this western field. Trace the Ethiopian back to 
his native country, Africa, and their utter inability, unmixed with other 
blood, to accomplish God's noble purpose in this western continent. Of 
the Mongolian family, their experiments in the old world, in Northern and 
Eastern Asia, show their incapacity to occupy and develop this western 
field. Of the incapacity of the Malayans we have no occasion to speak. 
Who could for a moment imagine that Jehovah brought up this, His con- 
tinent, from Pacific's vast deep to be occupied by the Malayan family ? 
The fact that but few have ever reached its shores in four centuries is a 
sufficient refutation. One race only, the white, or as it is usually termed 
Caucasian, remains to be considered. The name Caucasian was given to 
the white race by " Professor Blumenbach, not because he believed it to 
have been originated among the Caucasus Mountains, but because the best 
skull in his collection was that of a native of this mountain chain." The 
Caucasian has been in the more recent ages of the human domination over 
the world, the royal family. One division of this race, the Aryan, will 
come under special notice. The great thought to which the reader's atten- 
tion will hereafter be called is the following : 

(1) The Aryan has been the great mother family of the world's civil- 
ization. 

(2) The Hebrew family has oeen the law-giver of all modern civiliza- 
tion. 

(3) The conclusion is easy and natural, these families are in some way 
related. 

(4) From this family, or from these families, God would select the 
elements out of which to form the new man destined to form the western 
empire. 

Let us now see if this has been done. It is somewhat remarkable 
that America should have been first approached by Columbus at the cluster 



AMERICAN PHASE. 545 

of islands which lie between the two grand divisions of the Continent. 
These islands (West Indies) as to climate, soil, and productions were at- 
tractive. The inhabitants, however, though called Indians from the con- 
clusion that the land was the western extension of the East Indies) were 
of quite another race. (They are Mongolians). This great Western 
Navigator was evidently guided by an Omniscient Pilot, as will appear 
from a moment's reflection. From Palas to the Canary Islands was to 
the s. s. w. about three degrees. On the 6th of September he left those 
islands and was carried still further south, so as to strike the West In- 
dies. Now, let the reader trace the line of this voyage on a large map 
of the Atlantic and of the western hemisphere. Let him place before 
him the map of North America, as far north as the north boundary of 
Maine; and of South America as far south as the southern boundary of 
Peru. Suppose that the winds had wafted his vessels to the south of the 
West India Islands and that he had landed near the mouth of the Amazon, 
or that he had been driven by storms on to the coasts of New England, 
what enticing report could Columbus have taken back to Europe ? Simply 
that land had been discovered, but the intense heat of the one, and the 
dreary coldness of the other ; both occupied by low savages, render the land 
unfit for settlement of white civilized people ; no gold nor silver. Such a 
report would have retarded settlement more than two centuries; for no one 
acquainted with the character of the first Spanish adventurers to the New 
World, could call them by any other name than " gold-hunters." Jehovah 
stilled the tempest and stood at the helm and guided the chief vessel di- 
rectly towards the great empire, formerly of the Toltecs, but then (1492) of 
the Aztecs. An empire extending from the Atlantic (18° to 21° n.) to the 
Pacific (14° to 19° n). It was an elective empire, full of gold and silver, 
and when conquered by the Spaniards it Tvas governed by the great Monte- 
zuma. The Toltecs had moved south into South America. The Toltecs 
carried with them the first elements of civilization. " Their laws and usages 
stamp them as a people of mild and peaceful instincts, industrious, active, 
and enterprising. They cultivated the land, introduced maize and cotton, 
made roads, erected monuments of colossal dimension, and built temples 
and cities, whose ruins in various parts of New Spain still attest their skill 
in architecture, and sufficiently explain why the name Toltec should have 
passed into a synonym for architect. They knew how to fuse metals, cut 
and polish the hardest stones, fabricate earthenware, and weave various 
fabrics ; they employed hieroglyphics for the record of events, were ac- 
quainted with the causes of eclipses, constructed sun-dials, devised a simple 
system of notation, and measured time by a solar year, composed of 18 
months of 20 days each, adding 5 complementary days to make up the 365, 
and intercalating 12^ days at the expiration of every 52 years, which 
brought them within an almost inappreciable fraction to the length of the 
tropical year, as established by the most accurate observations. These and 
other arts, with a mild form of religion, and a simple but just mode of ad- 
ministering the laws, the Toltecs bequeathed to the Aztecs, who engrafted 
upon the civilization of their predecessors, many fierce and sanguinary 
35 



546 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

practices in their religious, and many purile usages in their social life." — 
Library of Universal Knowledge. Such was the Aztec or Mexican Empire 
under Montezuma when Columbus entered its eastern waters. The religion 
of the empire was most revolting, 20,000 human victims were annually 
offered up to the Mexican Mars (Huitziiopochtli), and the whole empire 
sent up into the nostrils of Jehovah the offensive odor of an immense 
slaughter house. In the great temple of the City of Mexico 5,000 priests 
were occupied in its worship. At the same time, to the southwest, was 
situated the mighty empire of the Incas, the second empire of the Peru- 
vians, the third being that of the Spaniards. The civilization of the Incas, 
as also their wealth, was, perhaps, superior to that of the Aztec empire. 
Their cities, monumental buildings and public roads were wonders to the 
Europeans. In government and social order they were superior to their 
Spanish conquerors. The Europeans were superior in their religion, per- 
haps, in their vessels and in their implements of war. On the island 
waters between these mighty empires, full of gold and silver, and idols, is 
Columbus sailing. Who can for a moment doubt the character of his 
pilot? A tradition prevailed at that time throughout the empire of Monte- 
zuma, and credited by him, that one of their gods, who had long before left 
the empire by way of the gulf of Mexico, and who had promised to return 
was about to return. When the hieroglyphic reports of the Spaniards, who 
had landed at St. Juan de Ulloa, reached Montezuma, he took them for 
their returning god. Mexico and Peru, in the course of half a century, 
came under the dominion of Spain, and remained under the dominant 
power of the mother country (Mexico till 1824, and Peru till 1821). These 
countries have a mixed population, composed of Spaniards and Indians, 
descendants of the Aztecs and Toltec races of the ancient empires. The 
Spaniards were the dominant family of the American Continent for 2\ cen- 
turies. A very important ethnological question comes up for solution. 
Did Jehovah intend the Spanish family to be the great rulers of the west- 
ern world? The events of the last century answer the question in the 
negative. The Spanish mission was one of discovery and conquest, rather 
than of advanced civilization and development. They ruined two mighty 
empires, and put an end to human sacrifices on heathen altars; erected the 
cross, yet, through persecutions and civil wars, those countries to-day, in 
population, wealth, and civil rule are far below the empires of the Aztecs 
and the Incas. Columbus was appointed by Jehovah to discover the New 
World and the Eoman Catholic queen Isabella of Spain, was the only 
sovereign, at that time, disposed to render any aid to the enterprise. The 
Spaniards have about completed their mission and have retired from active 
service in America, as not being designed as the governing race. Other ele- 
ments were to enter into the composition of the New Man, the True Amer- 
ican. We have been speaking about the new man for this Continent ; have 
decided that he is not a Spaniard, an Indian, an Inca, an Aztec, nor a Tol- 
tec. They have had their day and have principally taken up their abode 
in dust-tenants of their silent cities. Who is the new man is still asked ? 
Were we permitted to utter it we should say as it was said of John the 



AMERICAN PHASE. 547 

Baptist, "His name is Americanized Anglo-Saxon." An American of 
the Anglo-Saxon family. He is a Saxon ; an English Saxon ; an Ameri- 
can English Saxon. He is an English Saxon, familiar with and wedded 
to American institutions, civil, social and religious. He is of mixed 
blood, the. Saxon blood being only dominant. The blood of all races, 
white, black, yellow, brown, and red may be coursing through his veins; 
but his arterial blood must be Americanized Anglo-Saxon. Such is the New 
Man. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE TERRITORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN REPUBLIC, 

The land itself has already been described. One additional remark 
will, perhaps, aid in our investigations into the Providential origin and 
growth of this Republic ; the resources of this country require much 
labor for their development. To remove its immense forests, drain its 
swamps, tame its prairies, cultivate its soils, construct its roads, navigate 
its oceans, lakes, and rivers ; mine and reduce its immense beds of coal and 
other minerals, construct its necessary machinery and manufacture, and 
vend its raw material require an intelligent, temperate, active people and a 
live race. 

This country, covering our national territory, is often called the " land 
of the free ; " the world's Asylum, and we add the world's University " for 
training the new man and to fit him for his high mission, preparatory 
to the coming and reign of Messiah. It is a University where all pro- 
fessions and classes of men have their teachers and approved text-books 
and courses of instruction. This will appear as we trace it at its birth, 
in its infancy of childhood, youth and manhood. What nationalities 
first entered this territory ? Time will limit us to a very brief notice. 
As the Spaniards were, with Columbus, the first discoverers of this con- 
tinent, belonging to the Caucasian race, so were they the first conquerors 
and colonists of the s. e. part called Florida. It never was noted for its 
prosperity under Spanish rule. 3^ centuries have demonstrated God's 
purpose to place the New World under the domination of some other 
family. An exceedingly small current of Spanish blood flows in the veins 
of the new man of the great American Republic. They are one, how- 
ever, out of the many families. (2) The French were early settlers on por- 
tions of the territory now in possession of the aforesaid Republic. They 
occupied the Mississippi valley and Canada. From these extensive regions 
their nationality has departed by conquest and by purchase. Individuals 
and communities of the French family, or race, constitute an element of 
the Republic, it being a distant relative of the German Saxon. (3) The 
third subordinate family constituting an element of the great American 
Republic is the German. Under this generic name we shall reckon the 
following specific names of countries occupied by as many branches of 
the great German family, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Den- 
mark, Sweden and Norway. The Germans, with the branch families, in 
very early times settled in various parts which now form States of the 



648 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

American Union. Their blood abundantly flows through the veins of the 
new man of the Western Hemisphere. More of this family hereafter. 

The Italians have also found their way to the New Republic, in sufii- 
cient numbers, perhaps, to form a feeble representative in the new man of 
their countrymen, (Columbus) the illustrious discoverer. Though it is 
true that Italian blood flows in the veins of the American, still that family 
is by no means a governing element, by no means such as should stand for 
the old Roman or Latin race. The old Roman was too much worn out in 
the eastern world to figure largely in the western hemisphere. Another 
family that has become very numerous in the great American Republic is 
the Irish. Though by no means the dominant family, their influence is very 
great. It may be termed a powerful subordinate family, ranking next to 
the Germans in their religious and national (civil) influence. The Scotch 
also and Welsh are quite numerous in the American Republic. These 
three families prosper in the new world. These three families belonged 
principally to the first or Celtic (Keltic) emigration from the Asiatic East. 
The Lowland Scotch are ramifications of the Gothic, German, or Scythian 
stock. One fact is worthy of special note, and which we shall have occa- 
sion to use in the sequel of our work, is the following : All the families of 
the great American Republic that are of the second (Gothic, German or 
Scythian) emigration, have been more prospered than those of first or third 
emigration, the Keltic or Slavonian. The reasons will appear in our further 
investigations. In addition to the subordinate races already named, there 
are Jews, Chinese, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, and some individuals of 
almost every eastern nationality. 

The manufacturing of true American citizens out of such a hetero- 
geneous mass of nationalities is a work of no ordinary magnitude. The 
veinous blood of so many families, old, corrupted, and quite worn, injected 
into the veins of the Americanized Anglo-Saxon, requires immense lung 
power to convert it into arterial blood sufficiently pure and vital to sustain 
and develop the new organism, and yet such a work of unification is essen- 
tial to the vigor and development of the Union. " E Pluribus Unum " is a 
motto doubly true in the great North American Republic. It is a union of 
races, equally as of states ; persons out of the five races of men, Caucasian, 
Mongolian, Ethiopian, Malayan, and Indian, are taken by Jehovah and 
formed into a fifth race, American, with the lungs, heart, brain, frame, 
muscles, nerves, and arteries vitalized by the Anglo-Saxon blood. With 
these preliminary remarks we are prepared to trace with great brevity the 
origin and growth of the American Union, known over the world as the 
United States of America. 

(1) The 13 original colonies from their planting to their separation 
from England. This era of American history is the planting and germinal 
period of the Union. It exhibits the Republic in embryo. It notes the 
providential localities, the points of germination, and show^s the foot-prints 
of the invisible Guide as He walks amidst the "Golden Candle Sticks." 
..Facts of special interest only will claim attention. We aim to bring to the 



AMERICAN PHASE. 549 

front the labor and care of Jehovah in His conception, bringing to birth, 
rearing and educating such "A great people." To do this is a great work. 
In our notice of these seed and germinating centres we shall follow, princi- 
pally the order of chronology. By such a course we can note the colonies; 
as Virginia, that settled, first, the Carolinas. The affinity of races, and 
other characteristics will in this manner be made known and appreciated. 

(2) Virginia. — Sebastian Cabot first explored the shores of Virginia 
(1498) without making any settlement, since it offered no inducement to 
the gold-hunting Spaniard. Sir Walter Raleigh, under the reign of Eliza- 
beth, Virgin Queen of England, visited its shores and called the country 
Virginia. An English colony, under the charter of the London company, 
was planted at Jamestown, on James river. May 13, 1607. It was composed 
of gentlemen of fortune and persons of no occupation, no families, twelve 
laborers, and very few mechanics. From the friendly Indians they ob- 
tained lands and provisions. The first fall, put one-half of these colonists 
in their graves, the climate being damp and malarial. In 1609, five hundred 
new emigrants, including twenty women and children. These were soon 
reduced to sixty. Lord Delaware saved the retiring colony by a seasonable 
supply of persons and provisions. " In 1619 ninety respectable young 
women were sent out from England and sold to the planters for 100 pounds 
of tobacco each, also one hundred convicts to supply labor; and a Dutch 
trader also sold them twenty negroes." Here is perhaps the origin of negro 
slavery in the colonies, and of the southern English aristocracy, for in 1653 
the first permanent settlement was made in the Carolinas from Virginia. 
In 1624 it was made a crown colony. In 1649 there were 15,000 English, 
with 300 "good negro servants," and 20 churches. In 1671 the Virginia 
colony had 40,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,000 were black slaves, and 6,000 
English convicts and redemptioners, of whom 1,500 a year were imported. 
At that time the prosperous colony of 48 parishes had for its governor Sir 
William Berkley, who thanked God that they had no free schools or print- 
ing, which he hopes may be kept away for a hundred years, and says, "God 
keep us from both ! " From this sketch of Virginia's early history, we learn 
(1) how soon labor became unpopular with the upper classes ; (2) how early 
slavery was introduced; (3) how soon elements of all the races began to 
gather to these western shores preparatory to the formation of a new, a sixth 
race; for, if we reckon with some distinguished anthropologists, the Malayan 
as a division of the Mongolian family, as early as 1620, the five races were 
represented in the Virginia colony. 

(3) The Plymouth, or first Puritan colony, planted at Plymouth Dec. 
21, 1620. This colony was first settled by English Puritans, who, from the 
small ship Mayflower, landed on Plymouth Rock, Dec. 21, 1620, 0. S. As 
that colony stamped its features on what are now called the six New Eng- 
land states, containing 65,000 sq. miles, and through them has given charac- 
ter to the Union ; a sketch of the causes which led to its establishment, 
will be both interesting and instructive. New England was granted by 
James I., of England, to the Plymouth Company in 1606, under the title 



550 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of North Virginia, and the coast was explored by Capt. John Smith, 1614. 
The first settlement, the Puritan Pilgrim colony, has for its origin a very 
remarkable history. The Puritan element is ancient as the Bible. Its 
history during the Christian era can be traced in blood. During the dark 
ages, its followers were almost extinct. Here and there a limb, a hand, or 
a finger, protruding through the rubbish of the Apostacy, gave signs of the 
shallowness of its burial, the struggle of the martyr. Huss, and the Refor- 
mation, commenced by Luther, Zwingle, Melanchthon, etc., gave intima- 
tions of its approaching resurrection. It did awake; but it was to the help- 
lessness of a second infancy. Puritanism is the legitimate offspring of Bible 
investigation, intelligent, free, and with a conscientious desire to learn the 
truth in order to a correct faith and practice. Its character, therefore, has 
always been hostile to its popularity. English and Scotch Puritanism claim 
our special notice. The struggle of religious liberty against hierarchal des- 
potism, of church or state, has been long and severe. One fact relative to 
the Reformation, should be kept in mind, viz., it originated in Saxony, 
one of the German kingdoms, and the ancient European home of the Anglo- 
Saxons, now forming the most powerful empire of the world. The Refor- 
mation, dating back along on the under-current of popular movement to 
the days of Wycliffe. The residence of Erasmus in England, in the be- 
ginning of the reign of Henry VIII., stimulated the investigation of the 
Scriptures among the higher classes, and among the educated of English 
society. The translations of the Bible awakened inquiry among the people. 
The pure light that began to radiate from God's Holy Book, disclosed the 
deformities of the popular Christian worship of the day. The spirit of in- 
quiry walked abroad over all England, developing a second class of theolo- 
gians, who held that the Bible was its own expositor, and that its doctrines 
should be open and free for all. To this class, in 1567, was given, in de- 
rision, the name of Puritan. They were those " clergymen of the Church 
of England who refused to conform to its liturgy, ceremonies and discipline 
as arranged by Archbishop Parker and his Episcopalian coadjutors. But 
in point of fact, the Puritan tendency in the Church of England is as old 
as the Church itself, and to seek for its true origin we must go back to the 
period of Cranmer, who, when laying the foundations of English Puritan- 
ism in a nation only half prepared for the change, found it necessary to 
make concessions to the older religion, and to build the new Church on an 
elaborate system of compromise. This feature of 'Anglicanism ' — its essen- 
tial broad churchism — gave great offense to the stricter and more doctrinal 
of the English reformers, who never cared nor were competent to look at 
the thing from a statesman's point of view." This English school of Calvin 
tended to the reconstruction of the Church of England in carrying it in its 
practices further from Roman Catholicism. The reign of Mary sent these 
reformers into exile in Europe. Under Elizabeth they returned; but their 
notions were not tolerated by the queen. The Puritan idea was this : The 
interests of religion require its followers to abandon everything that could 
boast of no other authority than tradition or the will of man, and to follow 
as far as possible the " pure " word of God. Hence their enemies named 



AMERICAN PHASE. 551 

them Puritans. The name soon took a wider range of meaning, including 
all those that were strict and serious in a holy life. Hume reckons three 
classes of Puritans. 1. " Political Puritans, who disliked the bishops, not 
so much on ecclesiastical grounds, as on account of their servility toward 
the King, and their priestly antipathy to civil liberty. 2. The Puritans in 
Church discipline, who were for the most part in favor of Presbyterianism. 
3. The doctrinal Puritans, who were strong Calvinists on such points as 
predestination, free-will, grace, etc., but were not opposed to Episcopacy or 
to the ecclesiastical authority of the monarch, and who contented them- 
selves with assailing the Arminianism that was encouraged at Court." The 
third class exercised but little influence. The second class, in 1643, pro- 
duced the "Westminster Confession of Faith." The first triumphed for a 
time, in the person Cromwell. The restoration of royalty (1660) re-estab- 
lished the Episcopacy, and the act of uniformity (1662) threw the Puritans 
of the Church into the position of dissenters. Soon after these the bloody 
civil war commenced. 

The expatriation of the Puritans from England and their settlement 
in America should claim our special attention since by these movements 
the new world became the universal asylum for the oppressed of all nations 
and the home of civil and religious liberty. Elizabeth, and also James, 
were intolerant. Many of the Puritans exiled themselves principally in 
Holland. In 1608 they came to Amsterdam. Here they formed a Church, 
and had for their pastor John Robinson. Their first winter being over, 
they removed to Leyden. Here they called themselves Pilgrims and be- 
came satisfied to have no secure abode, but in the bosom of the Great In- 
visible. Here they continued during ten years, still not able to banish 
from their memories the sweet bowers of their early homes. " The strange 
language of the Dutch sounded harshly to them. They pined with unrest 
and were anxious to do something to convince King James of their 
patriotism." It was about the year 1617 that these Puritan Pilgrims began 
to have visions of the Western Hemisphere. At their meetings and social 
gatherings this vision thought was talked of, and its propriety discussed. 
How pleasing to worship God in those far-off lands where no enemy can 
molest our free intercourse with the Deity. Thus they longed to be there, 
amid the wilds of Jehovah's first temple, where they could "forget the past 
and be at peace with land of their nativity." The privilege of settling in 
America was refused them by the King of England. All he would promise 
was "to let the Pilgrims alone in America." Out of their own funds they 
provided to transport themselves to the wilds of the West. They purchased, 
at Amsterdam a small ship called Speedwell, and a larger vessel, the May- 
flower, was hired for the voyage. The Speedwell was to carry the emigrant 
Pilgrims from Leyden to Southampton where, in the Mayflower, a London 
Company was to join them. "Assembling at the harbor of Delft, on the 
River Meuse, as many of the Pilgrims as could be accommodated went on 
board the Speedwell. The whole congregation accompanied them to the 
shore. There Robinson gave them a farewell address, and the prayers of 
those who were left behind followed the vessel out of sight." On the 5th of 



552 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

August, 1620, they left Southampton, but on account of the shattered and 
leaky condition of the Speedwell, they took eight days for repairs at Dart- 
mouth. Again they set sail, but the Speedwell not being able to breast the 
ocean, was sent back to Plymouth. The Pilgrims crowded on board the 
Maj^flower for a final attempt. On the 6th of September the shores of their 
beloved country faded out of view. They numbered 102, and formed the 
first Puritan colony of New England. They were rocking amid sea storms 
for sixty-three days. The intention of the Pilgrims was to plant their 
colony on the Hudson, but Providence had for them quite another location, 
and consequently, another destiny. Jehovah had selected a choice seed 
and the proper spot where He might lay the foundation of a " great people," 
whose land and religious liberty should leaven all the nations of the earth. 
A tempest carried them northward to Cape Cod, and on the 11th of Decem- 
ber (old style) the Pilgrims were landed on Plymouth Rock. It was now 
near mid-winter, on a barren rock, which had been the sport of ocean tem- 
pests from pre-historic ages, they land, three thousand miles from their be- 
loved country, they now prepare to associate with wild beasts and more 
savage men. 

Houseless the Pilgrims were exposed both to cold and hunger, and 
death soon began to gather his victims. Clearing away snow-drifts they be- 
gan to build huts in " New Plymouth." Who except the persecuted and 
the homeless could have faced the terrible contrast between this howling 
winter wilderness and their European abode? Yet civil and religious 
liberty required such sacrifices in the foundation builders of their great 
western temple. At one time only seven men were able to work on the 
sheds. An early spring and provisions came to their relief. Such materials 
did Jehovah select to lay the first timbers of the great American Edifice. 
It is well to pause a moment at three groups of settlers on American terri- 
tory. (1) The Spaniards in Florida ; (2) the English gentlemen at James- 
town, Virginia; (3) and these Puritan Pilgrims in New England. What a 
wide contrast between the motives which induced the planting of these 
colonies. 

Florida, in 1512, was visited by the first European (Ponce de Leon, a 
Spaniard in quest of the " fountain of youth.") From that time to 1565 
various Spanish gold-hunting parties traversed this land of flowers, but 
made no settlement. In that year the king of Spain gave Pedro Melendez, 
a ferocious criminal, a commission to colonize Florida. It was to have a 
colony of not less than 500 persons. It was to be in a favorable district, 
and for this service he was to have 225 sq. miles near the settlement. 
Twenty-five hundred persons joined the expedition. Melendez had a bloody 
project in view to destroy a colony of French Protestants, called Huguenots, 
who, fleeing from the persecutions of the Romanists of France, had hid 
themselves in a wilderness colony (1565) near the mouth of the St. John's 
river. Their retreat had been discovered to the Roman Catholics of their 
own land. The colony was utterly exterminated. Philip II., King of 
Spain, was proclaimed monarch of North America, and at the same time 
the foundation-stones of the oldest town (St. Augustine) in the United 



AMERICAN PHASE. 553 

States were laid. St. Augustine was founded 17 years before the founding 
of Santa Fe, and 42 years before the settlement of Jamestow^n. The Span- 
iards never prospered in America. God sent them here to discover and 
introduce the New World to the Old. In carrying out their high and 
noble commission they robbed its two great empires (Mexico and Peru) 
and introduced, in many respects, a lower civilization. The materials 
that constituted this first colony in North America, planted on territory 
occupied by the Union, had neither the muscle, nerve, nor brain to sow the 
seeds of American liberty. They have shed too many rivers of innocent 
blood, and have committed too manj^ bloody deeds of robbery. Their in- 
fluence has been waning for centuries. Spanish blood has no ruling, life- 
giving element in the Union. 

(2) The second, or middle colony, was English, located on James river. 
It was called Jamestown. This colony was, at first, composed of gentlemen 
of fortune, and persons of no occupation and no families. They were 
members of the Church of England. Labor, therefore, had to be im- 
ported; hence slavery, in a mild form, soon found a home in Virginia. 
From Virginia slavery spread through the South. This peculiar insti- 
tution stamped upon the South its own distinctive features. The social 
fabric of the southern colonies was the occasion of some alienation of feel- 
ing towards the more northern, or Puritan colonies. Nothing but common 
interests and common dangers could hold them in one great colonial 
brotherhood. 

(3) The New England colony of Plymouth formed a third class of 
colonization motives. The extreme south, as in Florida, had principally 
in view an El Dorado, the gilded land, which existed at first in the im- 
aginations of the Spanish conquerors of America, whose insatiable avarice 
loved to dream of richer mines and treasures than those of Peru and 
Mexico. The labor motive, or the process of obtaining gold by cultivating 
the soil, was quite foreign to the thoughts of these southern colonists. 
The middle, or Jamestown settlement, had its primary origin from a 
similar motive. Sir Walter Raleigh made gold-hunting the dream of his 
life. The El Dorado, a city of gold and gems, he sought in various parts 
of the New World. The early colony of Jamestown was not exempt 
from the spirit of gold-hunting. It is stated in history as follows : " It 
was believed by the people of Jamestown that by going up this stream 
(Chickahominy) they could reach the Pacific Ocean. Smith knew the ab- 
surdity of such an opinion, but humored it because of the opportunity 
which it gave him to explore new territory. The rest might dig for gold 
dust and hunt for the Pacific ; he would see the country and make maps." 
— Ridpath. Mammon, in his golden temple, was their divinity. Such 
thoughts and pursuits gave cast to the colonial character of Virginia, and 
through it to the Carolinas. Manual labor was never a popular institu- 
tion with the Europeans of the south. The Puritan colony of Plymouth, 
New England, though composed principally of English, as were the emi- 
grants of Jamestown, introduced a new character in to the wilds of America. 
Those Pilgrims had landed upon the Northern shores of the New World 



554 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

with new motives, new thoughts, and new hopes. They came with in- 
telligence in the brain, religion in the heart, and work in the muscle. 
They reared an altar to Jehovah, and over it erected the temple of civil 
and religious freedom. The Puritans have been the leaven and the motors 
of the great American Republic and New England, its work-shop. Up to 

1620 little had been done in America, towards laying the foundation of the 
empire of its great future. 'How long its northern, southern, eastern and 
western forests, lakes and rivers had been the haunts of the savage, red men, 
is unknown, but the extreme north and east had been known to the whites 
as early as 986, nearly 500 years to its discovery by Columbus. The Ice- 
landers and Norwegians (Norse) had sailed along the eastern coast from 
Labrador or to the capes of Virginia. But they left the country without 
any fruits of their visits. From 1492 to 1620 the Spaniards had been some- 
what active in making discoveries and in conquests, as also in gold-hunt- 
ing ; still nothing had been done on the territory of the Union towards 
laying a foundation for the great Republic. The Norse effort was too far 
north, and had only red men with whom to trade. Theirs were simple 
discoveries without any possibility of sustaining settlements. The Spanish 
effort was too far south to be attended with any great national results. The 
French had done but little towards opening the New World. The Dutch 
had made a beginning in New York. 

The English had made many discoveries, but had planted only one 
colony. Four European families had been somewhat active in American 
discoveries, viz., Spanish, French, English and Dutch, still, which should 
be the dominating people, was a problem waiting for solution. The na- 
tional elements to this period were not of the right stamp, and their 
motives were too selfish and worldly to answer God's purpose in the new 
discoveries. Jehovah intended it to be the Asylum of the world and the 
theatre of the last human effort, preparatory to Messiah's return and estab- 
lishment of His kingdom. The choice of location was of the first moment. 
That location was not fixed by the wisdom and authority of any earthly 
monarch. It was fixed by the Almighty, since the Pilgrims themselves 
had chosen another locality on the Hudson, God, therefore, selected the 
locality for His American work-shop, and the people for its management. 
Let us now briefly sketch the other eleven colonies which grew up into as 
many States. 

(4) New York and New Jersey. — This territory was settled by the 
Dutch on Manhattan Island about 1614. The country was called New 
Netherlands. Great Britain and France did not, however, admit their 
claims. For ten years New York, or the settlement of New Amsterdam, 
was governed by the directors of the Dutch East India Company. In 

1621 the Dutch West India Company was formed, and the settlement 
came under its jurisdiction. In 1623 thirty families of Walloons, Dutch 
Protestants, settled on Manhattan and in Delaware. The Dutch and Pil- 
grims of Plymouth were fast friends. The Dutch made many settlements 
on the Hudson and in the vicinity of New Amsterdam, and were under 
their own government and governors till September 8, 1664, when it came 



AMERICAN PHASE. 555 

into the possession of the duke of York, and New Netherland became New 
York. The Puritans had grown so rapidly that they robbed the Dutch of 
the valley of the Hudson. New York was very prosperous under English 
rule. 

(5) New Jersey had an exceedingly varied history. They were un- 
der Swedes, Dutch and English. They became partly Puritan Quakers. 
Of New Jersey history says : " The province is specially interesting as be. 
ing the point where the civilization of New England blended with the 
civilization of the South. Here the institutions and laws of the Pilgrims 
were modified by contact with the habits and opinions of the people who 
came with Gosnold and Smith. The line between East and West Jersey is 
also the line between the Puritans of Massachusetts and the cavaliers of 
Virginia. Along this dividing line came the followers of Penn to subdue 
ill-will and make a Union possible." — Ridpath. 

(6) Pennsylvania. — This land was noted for its being an asylum for 
the Quakers who fled from severe persecutions in England. Its proprietor, 
William Penn, was a Quaker of the highest respectability. For his faith 
he was turned out of doors by his father, expelled from the university of 
Oxford, imprisoned, first in the Tower of London, and then in Newgate. 
Finding no toleration in England he turned his thoughts towards America. 
Receiving a charter from Charles II. of the tract now known as Pennsyl- 
vania, for his claim against the British government of sixteen thousand 
pounds. On the 27th of October, 1682, William Penn landed at New 
Castle, America, where many people were waiting to receive him. He pro- 
posed to found a government on the basis of honesty, sobriety and peace. 
His first act was to secure the lasting friendship of the Indians. To this 
end he paid them for their lands, he then called a conference of the 
sachems. He said : " My Friends : We have met on the broad pathway of 
good faith. We are all one flesh and blood. Being brethren no advantage 
shall be taken on either side. When disputes arise we will settle them in 
council. Between us there shall be nothing but openness and love." The 
chiefs replied : " While the rivers run and the sun shines we will live in 
peace with the children of William Penn." In 1683 the native chestnuts, 
walnuts, and ashes were blazed to indicate the lines of the streets of Phila- 
delphia. The Pennsylvania colony prospered. It was founded by a peace 
man on peace principles. Penn said, '' I will found a free colony for all 
mankind." Innocence and truth among Quakers are governing elements 
of character. If the world were full of that people it would not be far 
from Millennial glory. No better national principles can be found for man 
in his mortal state. They are the principles of peace triumphing over vio- 
lence and wrong. Pennsylvania and Western New Jersey contained the 
Quaker element of the colonies. 

(7) Maryland. — The Chesapeake around which Maryland is situated 
was first explored by Captain John Smith. In 1621 the London Company 
sent out Wm. Clayborne, an English surveyor, to map the country about 
the bay, as this land was included in the second charter of Virginia. In 
1629 Sir George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), a Catholic nobleman of York- 



556 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

shire, visited Virginia. Not being able to arrange for a colony with the 
Virginia legislators returned to London, and got from the king a charter for 
a new State, on the Chesapeake, called Maryland, after Henrietta Maria, 
wife of Charles I. Religious liberty was' one feature of the charter. No 
preference was given to any particular religion. George Calvert died be- 
fore the patent received the seal of the State. To Cecil, his son, the patent 
was issued June 20, 1632. In the fall of 1633 a company of 200 emigrants 
were gathered and placed under Leonard Calvert, Cecil's brother, who came 
with them to America. The first colony, at the mouth of St. Mary's river, 
was called St. Mary's. The Indians were friendly. The Indian women 
taught the English women how to make corn-bread, and the warriors in- 
structed the men in the art of hunting. Between the Calverts and Clay- 
borne there was a protracted feud. In 1649 the general assembly of Maryland 
passed the following act : " That no person or persons within this province, 
professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anywise 
troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, or in respect of, his or her re- 
ligion, nor in the free exercise thereof, within this province, nor any way 
compelled to the belief, or exercise of any other religion, against his or her 
consent." Among the provisions to secure this statue was the following : 
''Any one who should, on any occasion, call by way of reproach, any other 
person residing in the province, a Heretic, Schismatic, Idolator, Puritan, 
Presbyterian, Independent, Popish Priest, Jesuit, Brownist, Jesuited Papist, 
Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Antinomian, Barrowist, Roundhead, Sepa- 
ratist, or other name or term, in a reproachful manner, relating to religion, 
should for every such offense be fined ten shillings sterling, or if he could 
not pay this, he was to be publicly whipped, and then be imprisoned till he 
should appease the injured person by publicly asking his forgiveness." 

This toleration attracted many settlers. Puritans from New England, 
and Episcopalians from Virginia mingled with the Roman Catholic foun- 
ders. Gradually the Protestants got control. During the English com- 
monwealth the Catholics were treated with severity. At the revolution of 
1688 the patent of the colony was set aside, and the government was 
assumed by the crown. In 1716 the Calverts were restored to their privi- 
leges, who held them till the commencement of the revolution when they 
were abrogated by the people. 

These sketches of early Maryland history are sufiicient to indicate the 
elements which they carried into the American Union. At the close of 
the revolution civil and religious liberty had control of the masses. 
Though the Episcopal Church had, at one time, been established by law, 
so soon as the people assumed control of the government the State Church 
was no more. All religious sects were equal in the eye of the law. 

(8) North Carolina. — The first settlement was made by Virginians on 
the Chowan, 1651. In 1661 a company of Puritans settled on Oldtown 
Creek. This colony was destroyed by the Indians in 1665. The first 
colonies had much trouble with the Indians, but finally conquered them. 
God's design in the planting and government of the early American 
colonies is remarkably shown in the establishment of the government of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 557 

North Carolina. Sir Ashley Cooper was appointed to draw up a plan of 
government in due form for this new province. John Locke, the philoso- 
pher, was employed to prepare the constitution. Locke worked on the con- 
stitution from March to July. He named it "The Grand Model." It con- 
tained a hundred and twenty articles, and this was but the beginning! It 
divided the empire of Carolina into districts of 480,000 acres each. The 
offices were divided between two grand orders of nobility. All attempts to 
establish the new government ended in failure. The people had learned 
to govern themselves. ''Saul's armor" was too heavy. The inhabitants of 
North Carolina in their early colonies paid heavy taxes. The articles pur- 
chased from New England had a duty of $12,000. In 1676 large numbers 
of refugees from Virginia caused the people to rise against their govern- 
ment. Governor Miller and his council were seized, and the people estab- 
lished their own government, and John Culpepper, the leader of the 
insurgents, was elected governor. There continued to be an unsettled 
state of affairs for nearly one half a century. In 1704 Robert Daniel 
attempted to establish the Church of England. New settlers came from 
Virginia and Maryland. "Quakers came from New England, Huguenots 
from France and Peasants from Switzerland." The Indians wasted away 
(1241 civilized Indians still remain). In 1711 the savages rose against the 
scattered settlements and murdered a hundred and thirty persons. In 
1712 the Corees and Tuscaroras were subdued, 800 warriors being taken 
prisoners. The Tuscaroras abandoned their hunting-grounds, marched 
through Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and joining their kinsmen 
in New York, became the 6th nation of the Iroquois. Though North 
Carolina up to 1729 had advanced rapidly in population and wealth, 
religion and education had been greatly neglected. There was no minister 
in the province till 1703, In 1705 the first church was erected. The 
printing-press entered in 1754. The people were fond of liberty, brave, 
patriotic. They loved their country and called it The Land of Summer. 
(9) South Carolina. — Old Charleston, called that in honor of Charles 
11., was laid out in 1670. Sayle was the first governor. "The settlers 
soon organized a government on the principles of common sense." Five 
councilors were chosen by the colonists and five by the proprietors. 20 
delegates chosen by the people composed the house of representatives. In 
1671 Sir John Yeamans, ex-governor of the northern province, being 
appointed governor of the southern province, brought with him a cargo of 
African slaves. In less than two years the institution of slavery was 
firmly established, thus substituting the labor of the black man for that of 
the white man. They soon became twice the number of the whites. From 
1653 to 1693 South Carolina was connected with North Carolina. . During 
1671 settlements were rapidly multiplied. Ship-loads of discontented 
people were brought from New York to Charleston. Charles II. collected a 
company of Protestant refugees in Europe and sent them to Carolina to in- 
troduce and cultivate the grape and rear the silk-worm. England, France, 
Scotland and Ireland aided in colonizing South Carolina. Many of the 
French Huguenots made it an asylum from European persecution. The 



558 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

proprietors had promised them citizenship but failed to keep their pledges. 
About the year 1697 and onward their rights were respected. In 1686 
James Colleton, as governor, attempted to establish the Locke constitution. 
This resulted in a rebellion. The colony was put under martial law. This 
act greatly exasperated the people, and in 1689 William and Mary being 
proclaimed sovereigns, Colleton was banished from the province. In 1693 
the Locke constitution was annulled soon after. John Archdale, a cele- 
brated Quaker, became governor. Under him the colony was very pros- 
perous. All races, parties, and religious sects were protected in their rights. 
Under Governor James Moore war was carried on against the Spaniards in 
Florida. Under Governor Johnson (1706) an act was passed disfranchising 
all dissenters from the English Church, but Parliament voted that the act was 
contrary to the laws of England, and the law was revoked by the colonial 
legislature. Still Episcopalianism continued to be the established faith of 
the province. In 1706 Charleston was besieged by a French and Spanish 
fleet. Their combined forces were defeated, and they abandoned the siege. 
In the spring of 1715 the Yamassees Indians made an attack on the fron- 
tier settlements. The tribe, being terribly defeated in a battle, retired into 
Florida. For the expenses of the French, Spanish and Indian wars the 
people requested the proprietors aid to provide the necessary funds. This 
they refused, and for this refusal the proprietary government was over- 
thrown. The people's governor, James Moore, was inaugurated in the 
name of King George I. In 1729, under George II., seven proprietors sold 
their claims in the province to the king. The sum paid by George II. for 
the two colonies was £22,500. Royal governors were then appointed, and 
the affairs of the province were settled on a firm basis. History has the 
following: "The people who colonized South Carolina were brave and 
chivalrous. The Huguenot, the Scotch Presbyterian, the English dis- 
senter, the Irish adventurer, and the Dutch mechanic composed the mate- 
rial of the Palmetto State. Equally with the Puritans of the North, the 
South Carolinians were lovers of liberty." — Ridpath. 

(10) Georgia. — Though not in chronological order, since we are de- 
scribing southern colonies and character, it will be as well to sketch the 
early settlements of Georgia. It was founded by James Oglethorpe, an 
English j)hilanthropist. The first settlement (made June 9th, 1732) orig- 
inated as follows: "The law of England permitted imprisonment for debt. 
Thousands of English laborers were annually arrested and thrown into 
jail. In order to provide a refuge for the poor and the distressed, Ogle- 
thorpe appealed to George II. for the privilege of planting a colony in 
America. On the 9th of June, 1732, a charter was issued by which the 
territory between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, and westward to 
the Pacific was granted to a corporation, to he held in trust by the poor.^^ — 
Ridpath. Oglethorpe, a soldier and a member of Parliament, was the head 
of the corporation. In February, 1733, the foundation of Savannah were 
laid by James Oglethorpe with a colony of 120 persons. Tomochichi, chief 
of the Yamacraws, met Mr. Oglethore, saying, "Here is a present for you 
(a buffalo robe painted with the head and feathers of an eagle). The feathers 



AMERICAN PHASE. 559 

are soft, and signify love; the buffalo skin is the emblem of protection. 
Therefore love and protect us." The governor by his kindness secured the 
friendship of the Indians. Svs^iss Peasants, Scotch Highlanders and Ger- 
man Protestants found a home in the colony. It was said in London, on 
the occasion of Oglethorp's visit with Tomochichi, the Indian chief, "No 
colony was ever founded so wisely as Georgia." The councilors excluded 
rum. Traffic with the Indians was regulated by a license. Slavery was 
positively forbidden. A Moravian colony of 300 came with Mr. Oglethorpe. 
Among these was John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He came to 
convert the Indians. Being disappointed in that noble work, he returned 
to England in less than two years. His brother Charles came over as secre- 
tary to Governor Oglethorpe. In 1738 George Whitefield visited this with 
all the other colonies. Georgia was also in the Spanish claim, and a war 
was soon commenced. In 1739 a war commenced between England and 
Spain. This war involved Georgia and Florida, which continued till 1742, 
when it terminated in favor of Georgia. The proprietary laws, relative to 
the exclusion of slavery and in regard to primogeniture, became unpopular 
and were disregarded. Slaves were at first hired for short periods of ser- 
vice, then for longer terms and finally for a hundred years. Then slaves 
were brought directly from Africa and sold to the planters. In 1752 the 
patent of the colony being surrendered, a royal government was estab- 
lished over the province and the people were granted the freedom of Eng- 
lishmen. 

(11) Connecticut. — The history of this colony begins with 1630. The 
first grant of the territory was made by the council of Plymouth, England, 
to the Earl of Warwick, and in March, 1631, was transferred by him to 
Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, and John Hampden. The Dutch and 
Puritans both claimed the territory and the Dutch of New Netherland 
(New York) had j)lanted a colony, as a fort at Hartford. In 1635 the Eng- 
lish, in defiance of the Dutch, planted colonies at Hartford, Windsor, and 
Wethersfield. A fort was erected at the mouth of the Connecticut river, 
which prevented the entrance of a Dutch trading vessel. Such was the 
origin of Saybrook, in honor of Lord Say-and-Seal and Lord Brooke. The 
Pequod War forms the bloodiest page of the early history of Connecticut. 
West of the Thames was a land full of these savages. The war-like 
Pequods could muster 700 warriors, while the English of this colony could 
not put into the field 200 men. The Indians began the war in 1633 by 
murdering the crew of a trading vessel on the Connecticut. For this act 
the Pequods sent an apology to Boston. After various efforts of the 
Pequods to unite the tribes in a conspiracy against the English, which 
failed by the efforts of Roger Williams, the war began in earnest in 1636. 
Many murders were committed. On the 1st of May the towns of Con- 
necticut declared war. An army of 130 English and Mohegans, and 20 
soldiers were sent from Boston. These were commanded by Captain John 
Mason of Hartford. Their descent from Hartford to Saybrook occupied a 
day. On the 20th of the month, the expedition passed the mouth of the 
Thames, here was the principal seat of the Pequod nation. When the 



560 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Indians saw the squadron pass them, they exulted in great shouts, suppos- 
ing that the English were afraid to attack them. On the 25th of May the 
English, returning, came within hearing of the Pequod fort. The warriors 
had spent the night in uproar. At 2 a. m. the English began the attack. 
A dog ran howling among the wigwams, and the warriors sprang to arms. 
The English leaped over the puny palisades and entered upon their bloody 
work. "Burn them!" shouted Mason, seizing a flaming mat and running 
among the cabins, and in a few minutes the wigwams were a sheet of flame. 
The Indians ran round and round like wild beasts in a burning circus. 
The destruction was complete, 600 men, women and children were burned 
to death. Before sunrise the pride and glory of the Pequods were no more. 
The war ended in the total overthrow of the Pequods. After the close of 
the war colonies multiplied rapidly. New Haven was founded and a col- 
lege was founded. For the first year this colony had no government but 
the Bible. A covenant was signed that all would obey the Scriptures. 
"In June of 1639, the men of New Haven held a convention in a barn, and 
adopted the Bible for a constitution. The government was called the 
House of Wisdom, of which Eaton, Davenport, and five others were the 
seven Pillars. None but church members were admitted to citizenship." — 
Ridpath. Till 1639 the Western colonies were part of Massachusetts. In 
1643 Connecticut became a member of the Union of New England. It is 
well here to note the gradual steps towards a Union of the 13 original Eng- 
lish colonies, and the causes which produced such results. The varieties 
of races and of religion operated against colonial Union. Common dangers 
arising from the hostilities of the savages forced the settlements into Union 
for self-defence. The younger Winthrop was sent to London as an ambas- 
sador, and obtained a liberal charter from Charles II. This was the charter 
that was afterwards hid in the hollow of an oak (hence called the "Charter 
Oak"). In October, 1687, the Governor Andros, appointed by the king 
over all the colonies, invaded the assembly, wrote, "Finis, at the bottom of 
the last page of their minutes, demanded the surrender of their charter, 
which was refused." 

That night Joseph Wadsworth carried away and concealed the colonial 
charter. In 1693 Governor Fletcher of New York, went to Hartford to take 
command of the militia. He had with him his commission from King 
William. The charter of Connecticut invested this right in the colony. 
Fletcher ordering the soldiers under arms, began to read the commission. 
"Beat the drums! " shouted Captain Wadsworth, who stood at the head of 
the company. " Silence! " said Fletcher; the drums ceased, and the read- 
ing began again. " Drum ! drum ! " cried Wadsworth ; and a second time 
the voice of the reader was drowned, " Silence ! " shouted the governor. 
Wadsworth stepped before the ranks and said : " Colonel Fletcher, if I am 
Interrupted again I will let the sunshine through your body." That ended 
the controversy. Fletcher thinking it better to be a living governor than a 
dead colonel, returned to New York. Learning got a fair start in Connecti- 
cut, an excellent college sprang up and common schools dotted the land. 
The history of the early settlement of Connecticut thus closes : " The half 



AMERICAN PHASE. 561 

century preceding the French and Indian war was a time of prosperity in 
the western parts of New England. Connecticut was especially favored. 
Peace reigned throughout her borders. The farmer reaped his fields in 
cheerfulness and hope, the mechanic made glad his dusty shop with anec- 
dote and song, the merchant feared no tariff, the village no taxes. Want 
was unknown, and pauperism unheard of. With a few dark pages in her 
history, Connecticut had all the lofty purposes and noble virtues of Massa- 
chusetts." Thus we see that every colony has its own peculiar history in 
its settlements and in its developments of character. No colony had paid 
more attention to education and religion. The bible was their religious 
guide and law-book, civil liberty took root in every soil. The tree of 
liberty, civil and religious, sprang up, mounted towards the heavens, shot 
forth its branches and yielded abundance of delicious fruit. 

(12) Rhode Island. — On the soil of this little state, in June 1636, 
Roger Williams, with five companions, first planted the scion of religious 
liberty. Other exiles joined the company. They laid the foundation of 
Providence. New farms were entered and new houses were erected. Here 
was found at " Providence Plantation," (a name by which it is still known) 
a refuge for all the persecuted. '' The leader of the new colony was a native 
of Wales, born in 1606, liberally educated at Cambridge. He had been the 
friend of Milton, and was a great hater of ceremonies. He had been exiled 
to Massachusetts, and was now exiled by Massachusetts. He brought to the 
banks of the Narragansett the doctrines of religious liberty and the equal 
rights of .man." — Ridpath. Mr. Williams organized the first Baptist Church 
in America. Mr. Williams was the life, spirit, and natural governor of the 
colony, yet he declined wealth, freely distributing among the colonists 
those lands which he had purchased from Canonicus, the chief of the Nar- 
ragansetts. Only two small fields were kept by the governor for himself. 
" All the powers of the government were entrusted to the people." 

" A simple agreement was made by the settlers that in matters not 
affecting the conscience they would yield obedience to such rules as the 
majority might make for public good. In questions of religion the con- 
science should be to every man a guide." — Ridpath. Providence Plantation 
afforded an illustration of the truth, that all denominations can live to- 
gether in peace and harmony. Roger Williams was beloved by the Indian 
chiefs and was, therefore, treated by them as a brother. During the Pequod 
war Rhode Island was protected by the powerful tribe of the Narragansetts. 
In 1638, Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends arrived at Rhode Island, Roger 
Williams gave them a very kind welcome. " Governor Vane of Massachu- 
setts prevailed upon Miantonomoh, chief of the Narragansetts, to make 
them a gift of Rhode Island. The first settlement was located at Ports- 
mouth, in the northern part of the Island. The Jewish nation furnished 
the model of the colony. William Coddington was chosen judge, and three 
elders were appointed to assist him. In the following year he took the title 
of governor, and the administration became more modern. At the same 
time a party of colonists removed to the southwestern part of the Island, 
and laid the foundations of Newport. In sight of this settlement stood the 
36 



562 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

old stone tower, a monument built by tbe Norsemen." — Ridpath. The peo- 
ple met (March 1641) to frame a constitution, which was completed on the 
third day. The government was called a "democracie." The supreme 
authority was vested in the free peo^jle of the island, to be ruled always by 
a vote of the majority. The republic was called the providence planta- 
tion. In 1643, Providence and Rhode Island were refused admission into 
the Union of New England. Roger Williams was sent to London, and on 
the 14th of March 1644, obtained a patent, and Rhode Island was made an 
independent commonwealth. In 1663 the charter of the Long Parliament 
was re-issued by Charles II. For nearly 25 years Rhode Island was pros- 
perous. Sir Edward Andros demanded the charter, broke up the assembly, 
dissolved the government. Andros' imprisonment at Boston (1689) the 
liberties of Rhode Island were restored. "Again the little state around the 
Bay of Narragansett was prosperous. For more than fifty years the peace 
of the colony was undisturbed. The principles of the illustrious founder 
became the principles of the commonwealth. The renown of Rhode Island 
has not been in the vastness of territory, in mighty cities, or victorious 
armies, but in devotion to truth, justice, and freedom." — Ridpath. 

(^13) New Hampshire. — The Plymouth council in 1622 granted the 
territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec to Sir Ferdinand Gorges 
and John Mason. This territory was soon secured by actual settlements. 
Little Harbor, near Portsmouth and Dover were founded. These for many 
years were only fishing stations. In May 1629, Rev. John Wheelwright 
visited the Abenaki chieftains, and purchased their claims to the territory 
held by Mason, but in November Mason's title was confirmed by a second 
patent, and the province took the name of New Hampshire. Mason hav- 
ing died, his widow undertook to govern the province. After a few years 
the territory was surrendered to Mason's servants and dependents. In this 
condition of affairs John Wheelright, with a small part}"" of friends planted 
a colony at Exeter. This small colony was made a republic, established on 
the principle of equal rights. In April 1642, New Hampshire became a 
part of Massachusetts. The rights of citizenship were not confined to 
church membership in the new colony. Portsmouth and Dover were in 
the communion of the church of England, as it was the only colony east of 
the Hudson not originally founded by the Puritans. 

New Hampshire became a royal province in 1679. Before the arrival 
of the royal governor, Edward Cranfield, the sawyers and lumbermen of the 
Piscataqua met in general convention at Portsmouth. The assembly passed 
a resolution, that no act, law, or ordinance, should be valid unless made by 
the assembly and approved by the people. The King of England declared 
this resolution to be both wicked and absurd. In November, 1682, Cran- 
field dismissed the popular assembly. This act was resented by the people. 
At Exeter the Sheriff was beaten with clubs. The farmers' wives met the 
tax-gatherers with pailfulls of hot water. At the village of Hampton, 
Cranfield's deputy was led out of town with a rope around his neck. Cran- 
field, unable to collect his rents, and vexed beyond measure, wrote to Eng- 
land begging for the privilege of going home. Soon after this Edmond 



AMERICAN PHASE. 563 

Andros was appointed by the King Grovernor of New England. When 
Andros was imprisoned at Boston, the northern towns rebelled. In 1690 
New Hampshire was again united to Massachusetts. In 1692 the two 
provinces were again separated. From 1699 till 1741 the province was 
under the authority of Massachusetts. At the last named date there was a 
final separation. For many years New Hampshire was the theatre of con- 
tinued strifes and law-suits. Matters were finally amicably settled as to the 
Masonian patent. New Hampshire, extending far north, suffered most 
severely in the Indian wars. In the war of King Philip, and in the wars of 
William Anne and George, the province was nearly ruined. " But in the 
intervals of peace the spirits of the people revived, and the hardy settlers 
returned to their wasted farms. Out of these conflicts and trials came 
those sturdy pioneers who bore such a heroic part in the contest of after 
years." — Ridpath. 

(14) Delaware. — So named from Lord De La Warr, an early colonial 
Governor of Virginia, who sailed up the bay in 1610, though Henry Hudson 
had preceded him for nearly a year. The first colony was planted by the 
Dutch in 1630, but three years later it was destroyed by the savages. In 
1637 the Swedes and Finlanders located a colony on Christiana Creek, 
where they erected a fort. The country was called New Sweden. A little 
later they built a fort on the island of Tinnicum, only a few miles below 
Philadelphia. This was considered by the Dutch of New Amsterdam (New 
York) an invasion of their territory. The Dutch erected Fort Casimir, five 
miles from the Swedish fort. In 1654 Fort Casimir was taken by the 
Swedes, but in 1655 the Dutch conquered the whole country and sent to 
England all the colonists who refused allegiance to Holland. In 1664, when 
New York came under the British government, the territory of Delaware 
had two claimants, the Duke of York and Lord Baltimore. William Penn 
satisfied each claimant and joined the territory to Pennsylvania, and for 
20 years it was governed as a part of that state. In 1703 Delaware estab- 
lished a legislature, but was under the Governor of Pennsylvania. She 
became an independent state in the time of the Revolution. Delaware, 
owing to her location, was almost exempt from Indian depredations. Dela- 
ware, since the Revolution, has received her share of Anglo-Saxon blood; 
and, although Texas as territory, is equal to 130 Delawares, still the little 
"diamond state" is a very active element of the Union. She is a con- 
spicuous element of the ^^ American.'''' 

We have now traced the history of the thirteen colonies from their 
origin to the great contest with the French and Indians. We have noticed 
the mingling of races — the Indian and Malayan being included in the 
Mongolian. We have also noticed the fierce struggles of these races while 
forming an admixture. The contests of the various families of the Cauca- 
sian race, Dutch, Swedes, Spaniards, Irish, Welsh, Scotch, Prussian, Poles, 
Italians, Russians, Swiss, Hungarians, Danes, French, Turks, and Anglo- 
Saxon, or English, have been at times severe. We have noticed the friction 
of manners and customs, languages, religions, laws, and their brain efibrts, 
which should be the dominating race, and of that race, which family should 



564 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

be dominant, whether the Spanish, Dutch, French, or English. We have 
seen the Anglo-Saxon extend his dominion from Maine to Florida, along 
the Atlantic, in a narrow belt, while the Spanish held the South and the 
French held the North and West. At the commencement of the French 
and Indian wars the French territory was vast, said to be 20 times that of 
the English. During the colonial period, some efforts at Union had been 
made among the British colonies, but the common dangers and interests 
were not sufficient to overcome the repulsive tendencies of such hetero- 
geneous masses. In New England an imperfect and illy defined Union had 
been formed ; but so soon as the Union attracted the notice of the mother 
country, the freedom of the colonies was invaded and their rights were 
subordinated to foreign authority. Any attempt at a final separation of 
the colonies from the parent nation, at so early a period, would have been 
an abortion. At that time (1749 to 1751) three rival powers from Europe 
held large portions of what are now included in the Great American Re- 
public: (1) The Spaniards in the South; (2) the French in the West and 
North; (3) and the English in the East. The Indian tribes were still 
powerful. If the colonies had attempted a separation, they would have 
had the savages, the French, and the English to fight. (1) The Indians, 
because they were robbing them of their hunting grounds and of their 
fathers' sepulchres ; (2) the French, because they held too much territory 
to allow an independent nation to endanger their colonies. The time for 
their birth had not come. Jehovah, who was watching over the embryotic 
nation, said by His visible Providence, " The time is not yet." Make no 
effort at independence. Your materials are raw. No Union exists. You 
have not yet sufficiently assimilated the veinous blood of the various races 
to the arterial blood of the new race. The red man must be subdued, the 
French must be driven from their extended possessions. These conquests 
cannot be made without the aid of England. It was not then apparent 
what was to be the dominant family of the New World. God is evidently 
the High Governor of the nations. Clearly has this been exemplified in 
the Western Hemisphere. His plans can be seen by those that are willing 
to investigate. These plans we propose to show in our progressive history. 
We now come to notice the growth of the American colonieb from the 
commencement of the French and Indian war to the great American Revo- 
lution. In that war it was decided what European family should be 
dominant in America. The contest was between the French and the Eng- 
lish. England had thirteen colonies, occupying the Atlantic coast from 
Maine to the extreme of Georgia. The British crown extended its claims 
across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The French held Canada and 
the great valley of the Mississippi. In that valley met the armies of the 
two rival claimants. The Indians, through jealousy of the advancing 
colonies, joined their warriors to the French. The war began about 1753 
and raged in the Ohio Valley and in Canada. It is not our province to 
notice the particular engagements, but the special results so far as they 
operated upon the Union and development of the colonies. The struggle 
necessarily tended to unite the colonies, and to develop their resources. 



AMERICAN PHASE. 565 

They would not have succeeded without British aid, and their aid was nec- 
essary to British success At the close of the year 1757, France held pos- 
session of twenty times as much American territory as England ; and five 
times that of both England and Spain. During the years 1758 to 1759 the 
English met with remarkable success. On the 10th of February, 1763, the 
English and French entered into a treaty "All the French possessions in 
North America eastward of the Mississippi, from its source to the river 
Iberville, and thence through Lakes Maurepas and Pautchartrain to the 
Gulf of Mexico were surrendered to Great Britain." Spain also, with 
whom England had been at war, ceded East and West Florida to the Eng- 
lish Crown. Such was the terminus of the French and Indian war. This 
protracted conflict decided that the decaying institutions of the Middle 
Ages should not rule in America, and that the powerful language, just laws 
and priceless liberties of the English race should be planted forever in the 
vast dominions of the New World. Self-defence had united the colonists 
as one growing brotherhood. For ten years they had been associated in 
camp, on the march, and in the deadly conflict. The North, the Middle, 
and the South, learned to appreciate each others peculiar thoughts, feelings 
and habits. The process of assimilation of the parts of those European, 
Asiatic, and African families that had been removed to these western wilds, 
had been rapid. The colonists had learned the drill of the British soldiers 
and become familiar with the Indian tactics. They had cultivated self- 
reliance, and were able to appreciate the crown strength. It was to them a 
seminary, where they were taught the rudiments of their future nationality. 
The problem of the ruling family being now decided in favor of the British 
or Anglo-Saxon, another problem immediately came up, was that Anglo- 
Saxon domination to be by colonies subordinate to the mother country or 
was it to be by a new independent nation, formed of colonial states ? The 
colonial movements gave indications of the latter as being the true model 
of Anglo-Saxon North America. Great changes were necessary, however, 
before such a model government could, with any degree of safety, be intro- 
duced ; (1) colonial power was required to be greatly augmented ; (2) and 
the ties by which they were bound to the mother country had to be gradu- 
ally severed. Let us now resume the chain of colonial history, and mark 
the rapid march of this people towards an independent Union of national 
greatness. (1) The distance from the mother countrv made a species of 
independent legislation necessary. That necessity increased as the colonies 
filled up with a mixed mass from all nations. It required a strong power 
to govern and assimilate such discordant material. (2) Rulers, three thou- 
sand miles away, were not sufiiciently informed, to be able to administer 
due and equal justice. (3) The selfish interests of all departments of trade 
and comm.erce of the mother country tended to curtail the opening resources 
and the active colonial industries. The British government claimed the 
right to tax the American colonies without giving them any representation; 
in a word, to tax them without their consent. They reasoned as follows : (1) 
They were planted on our soil, by our care nourished and protected, by our 
money defended from the Indians and French. We have an absolute right 



566 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

over them. Their charters make the colonies, simple corporations to be 
changed or revoked at pleasure. The colonies took a different view, reply- 
ing in substance as follows : (The Puritan answer), (a) You never had a 
right to the territory. It was in possession of the Red man ; and for his 
possessions you gave him no money. You took his land by the right of 
superior power. Our charters were, in the eye of justice, of no value what- 
ever. The soil was not yours to give. Your oppressive acts against civil 
and religious liberty, planted us in the savage wilderness of America. (6) 
"We flourished by your neglect. Where you let us alone we were the most 
prosperous and happy. As to the expense of the French and Indian wars, 
they were the legitimate, results of your covetousness. We alone, under- 
standing their peculiar ways and tribal habits, could have prevented those 
powerful combinations. If you claiin a right to tax us, we claim a voice 
in your parliament, for without representation there can be no just taxation. 
When we were in England, we had a voice in the government. Why 
should our removal to America forfeit our citizenship, without, at the same 
time, forfeiting your right to tax us as citizens ; the two classes of rights 
should stand or fall together. Between the colonies and the mother country 
sprang up a race of hostile feelings, of jealousy within its numerous families 
with the mother; and the idea of unjust and bitter oppression with the 
daughters. This scion of independent nationality, planted and cultivated 
by both parties, shot forth its trunk and branches so rapidly, that, in the 
space of thirty years it darkened the whole colonial territory. The resist- 
ance of the colonies forced them in to a more intimate Union; so that 
before hostilities had actually commenced, there had been a congress of the 
colonies. From the most northern settlement of New Hampshire to the 
southern extreme of Georgia, the one topic seemed to occupy the governing 
spirits among the people, viz., the arbitrary right which England claimed 
to tax the American colonies. The leading thought on all public occasions 
seemed to be, ^' We are a distinct independent people, in a New World, 
which we are clearing and cultivating. Why may we not have our own 
institutions, civil, social, and religious? Our own rulers and assemblies? 
Why should we be restricted in our manufactures, trades, and commerce ? 
Why should we be limited in developing the resources of our immense 
country? Why should we be confined to English markets? Such feelings 
marked the approaching birth of their nationality. It became evident 
that an alienation of feeling was growing up, and that the variances would 
goon eventuate in a trial of strength. For this both parties began to pre- 
pare. In accordance with their claims of unlimited power over the colonies. 
Great Britain began to pass, what the colonists regarded, acts of oppression, 
such as the Importation Act of 1733. By it heavy duties were laid on 
sugar, molasses, and rum. In 1750 it was decreed by Parliament that no 
iron works should be built in America. The manufacture of steel was for- 
bidden, and the felling of pines, outside of enclosures, was interdicted. 
In 1763 Samuel Adams produced a powerful argument before a meeting in 
Boston, that, under the British constitution, taxation and representation were 
inseparable. In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed. This act produced a 



AMERICAN PHASE. 567 

terrible ferment among the colonies. It was called ''The Folly of Eng- 
land AND THE Ruin of America." This act was repealed, but the right 
to hind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, was still declared by Parliament. 
All these duties culminated in the "Boston Tea Party." Before the first 
blood is shed, let us compare the physical strength of the colonies with 
that of Great Britain. It is only by such a comparison, that we can discern 
the Invisible Leader of the American cause. The population of the colo- 
nies at the beginning of the Revolution has been variously estimated from 
2^ millions to 3 millions, while England numbered about 20 millions-. 
They had command of the Ocean, and their armies were numerous and well 
disciplin<-d. Their resources were immense. The American colonies had 
neither army nor navy, and were without resources. Scattered from Maine 
to Georgia, composed of refuse materials of all nations, speaking various 
languages, of every variety of social and political notions, not assimilated 
nor accustomed to united action, a domestic enemy in the savages, and 
many families royalists, with British officers filling all the offices of royal 
trust! What could be anticipated of such a people? Inevitable failure, 
unless assi>;ted by some extraordinary power. Such aspects of human 
destiny are designed to reveal the personage of the presiding Chief of all 
great national movements. Jehovah makes use of wicked nations, with 
which to carry out His plans, and make Himself visible. What great 
nation had He selected to aid the colonies in their terrible struggles for 
national independence ? Every well-informed reader is prepared to answer 
France; a nation so recently occupied with the Indians, in fighting the 
colonies. The history of the Revolution demonstrates the efficiency of 
French aid. Without it, in all probability, the American struggle would, 
at that time, have been an humiliating failure. What circumstances 
turned the savage hostility of the French into faithful and efficient allies? 
History says : " The influence of France, inciting the colonies to rebel," 
was one cause of the Revolution. " The French had ceded Canada to Great 
Britain with the hope of securing American independence. The people of 
England were monarchists. The colonists had never seen a king. Their 
dealings with the royal officers had created a dislike for foreign institutions. 
For a long time the colonists had managed their own affairs in their own 
way." The French and Indian war was against the British, and not against 
the colonies as such. Finding their inability to hold their vast Amei'ican 
territories against the English, they were ready for American independence. 
Revolutionary ideas of liberty and republicanism were taking deep root on 
French soil. The " Sons of Liberty " becoming numerous in the Old World, 
began to multiply among the American colonies. God was executing 
judgment on the papacy, and especially on France, where a close union 
existed between the Altar and the Throne. Jehovah had been preparing a 
new religion (the old resurrected under Luther and the Reformers) for the 
New Man of the New World. The French Jesuits first discovered and 
colonized the valley of the Mississippi. That God did not intend that to 
be the ruling religious element in America, was evidenced by the fact of 
the French failure in holding their territory against Anglo-Saxon advance. 



568 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

THE BIRTH STRUGGLE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, ITS NATURE AND 

DURATION. 

We have now arrived at that period in colonial history when a new 
nation was to be born in the new world. It had been growing in its em- 
bryotic state for the space of 168 years. The time has now arrived when 
its severance from the mother nation obliges it to take an independent 
position among the world's nationalities. That period covers a space of 
about seven years and is one of peculiar trials, and carries with it great 
interest to every American citizen. We are not writing the history of the 
American Republic, but simply noting those events, which amid the fury 
of the war tempests, exhibit Jehovah in the lightning's flash, or in the 
openings of the dark cumuli vocal with their trumpet voice disclose the 
day-dawn of the upper brightness. The first British army of Coercion was 
a fleet and ten thousand soldiers, sent to General Gage to reduce the colonies 
by force. In the second Colonial Congress at Philadelphia, eleven colonies 
were represented, disclosing the fact that the work of colonial Union was 
making rapid progress. The first blood of the Revolution was shed at Lex- 
ington, Pitcairn, commander of the British forces, exclaimed to the pro- 
vincials, " Disperse ye villians ! throw down your arms ! " The minute- 
men stood still, (for the Americans had resolved that the British should 
spill the first blood). Pitcairn cried, " Fire! " Then it was that "the first 
volley of the Revolution whistled through the air, and sixteen of the 
patriots fell dead or wounded." " The die is cast," and the British pass 
the American "Rubicon," (April 19th, 1775). This conflict produced a 
fearful excitement over the whole country and Boston was soon invested 
with 30,000 militia. These soldiers were brave and full of zeal, yet they 
were without discipline and destitute of the necessary arms. The battle of 
Bunker's (Breed's) Hill soon followed. Boston was evacuated by the 
British the next spring. During the spring, summer and fall of 1775 
there were many engagements with varied success, yet one idea began to 
develop among all classes of Americans, " Freedom from the mother coun- 
try." Why should Jehovah bring up from the great deep so large a conti- 
nent with such vast resources, to be governed by a small island 3,000 miles 
away. We can, and, by the grace of God, we will be free and independent. 
By the commencement of the spring of 1776, the British lion was fully 
aroused from his lair. An army of 55,000, including 17,000 German mer- 
cenaries (" Hessians,") was sent, under the command of Sir William Howe, 
to put down the " wicked rebellion." Leaving for a moment the war-path, 
let us retire to the halls of Congress, now in session in Philadelphia. Let 
us learn from the speeches and resolutions of the great men of that honor- 
able body, the colonial hopes and prospects. Let us hear if there are any 
notes of alarm? If there are any feelings of discouragement? That pro- 
vincial Congress declares, that, since all royal authority has ceased we 
recommend to the several colonies to adopt " such governments as might 
best conduce to the safety and happiness of the people," and the thirteen 
colonies soon adopted constitutions as independent states. On the 7th of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 569 

June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered a resolution in Con- 
gress, declaring that " the united colonies are and ought to be free and 
independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown; and that all political connection between them and the 
state of Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This resolution, 
after an earnest debate, was adopted by the votes of nine out of thirteen 
colonies. A committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was instructed 
to prepare a declaration in accordance with the above resolution; and the 
celebrated declaration of independence, written by Mr. Jefferson, based 
upon the equality of men and the universal right of self-government, and 
asserting that all government derives its just powers from the consent of 
the governed, on July 4th, 1776, received the assent of the delegates of 
the colonies, which thus dissolved their allegiance to the British crown, 
and declared themselves free and independent states." This declaration 
taught the British government what would henceforth, be the nature of 
the struggle, and the colonies, that, upon the issue, they had staked their 
" lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." The declaration was read 
at the head of each brigade. Rejoicings were made through all the 
colonies. "At Philadelphia the king's arras were torn down and burned 
in the street. At Williamsburg, Charleston and Savannah there were 
bonfires. At Boston the declaration was read in Faneuil Hall. At New 
York the populace pulled down the statue of George III. and cast it into 
bullets." 

The leading principles of the declaration are : (1) The natural equality 
of man;. (2) that the power of governing should originate from, and be 
under the control of the governed ; (3) that the government of George III. 
was not adapted to the wants of the people ; (4) that his tyranny over the 
American colonies was great beyond all endurance ; (5) that the United 
colonies, are, and of right should be free and independent States. The 
campaign of 1776 was disastrous to the cause of American independence. 
On the 13th of December, Washington had only about 6000 men with New 
York and New Jersey in the hands of a victorious enemy. The battle of 
Trenton (on Christmas morning) roused the nation from deep despondency, 
(about 1000 Hessians were captured.) On opening the campaign of 1777, 
Washington had only about 5000 men, while the British forces had been 
augmented. During this year, however, that the American cause was 
under the management of the Supreme Destiny is evident. It is very true 
that " man's extremity is God's opportunity." The French till now, not 
desiring to commence another war with England, had simply wished the 
Americans success, furnishing money and arms privately, now they began 
to show signs of rendering national aid. Marquis of Lafayette, and Baron 
De Kalb, came over and joined the American armies. France, as a nation, 
did not act, however, till the Americans had met with remarkable success, 
in the capture of a large British army. And here we recognize the Divine 
Agent, in causing the Americans to work out principally their own inde- 
pendence, so that no European nation should be able to establish any vital 



570 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

claim to the parentage of American nationality. The event, to which we 
have alluded, we shall briefly narrate. 

The campaign of General Burgoyne from Canada in the spring and 
summer of 1777, was one of the great events of the war. The composition 
of Burgoyne's army, was the fatal mistake of his campaign. It was the 
same bloody error, that had ruined the cause of the French and Indian 
war, it was the arming of the merciless savages against the bleeding cause 
of national and religious liberty, and with them enlisting a people (Cana- 
dians) whose interests were naturally with the American cause. Every 
movement of his large army had upon it the seal-stamp of an Avenging 
Jehovah. It is true that he met with some apparent success; apparent 
only, since they increased his distance from the base of supply, and drove 
him farther towards the fatal net. The reverses at Bennington and Fort 
Schuyler, threw Burgoyne into the meshes from which he could never 
escape with his army. At Fort Schuyler the savages fled through treachery. 
After the battle of Saratoga, September 19th, Burgoyne's supplies failed 
and his Canadian and Indian allies deserted his standard. The loss of the 
battle of Stillwater, caused Burgoyne to commence a retreat, which was 
continued to Saratoga, where being surrounded, his whole army surren- 
dered, (Oct. 17) numbering 5791. Among the prisoners were six members 
of the British Parliament, 42 pieces of brass artillery, 5000 muskets, and an 
immense amount of stores. This plan to separate New England from the 
rest of the Confederacy was an utter failure. The surrender of Burgoyne 
avenged their union with savages ; destroyed their effort to divide the 
Union, and decided the French monarch, to acknowledge American inde- 
pendence, and to assist them with his army and navy. In the middle and 
southern states the American cause suffered severely. The Americans win- 
tered at Valley Forge. The last suns of 1777, sat in gloom over the cause 
of American liberty. It was a winter of suffering and despondency. Yet 
Jehovah was forging the instrument of British overthrow and American 
success. The British army took up its winter quarters at Philadelphia. 
While the American army, many without shoes, marking the frozen ground 
with bloody footprints, was suffering all the hardships of a protracted, 
dreary winter, their great chief, neglected and almost abandoned by Con- 
gress, the British army were living at ease and faring sumptuously, being 
fed by the strong party of Loyalists. 

It pleased the supreme Ruler to lead through such a furnace, heated 
seven times those whom he had appointed for the royalists of the New 
World. Nations, as individuals, are perfected through suffering. Devel- 
opment requires such a process. Judging after the manner of men, it 
would be madness to protract the struggle. A powerful empire against 
feeble, exhausted colonies. Nothing but a Divine interposition could pro- 
tract the very unequal contest. How could these colonies sustain another 
campaign ? The Arm of help had raised up a power in Europe. The surren- 
der of Burgoyne, had decided the French king to espouse the cause of the 
Americans. On the 6th of February, 1778, a treaty was concluded ; France 
acknowledged the independence of the United States, and entered into the 



AMERICAN PHASE. 571 

relations of friendshijD with the new nation. In April, a French fleet 
under Count d' Estaing, sailed for America, and Great Britain and France 
immediately prepared for war. On the 18th of June, the British army 
evacuated Philadelphia, and retreated across New Jersey, followed by the 
American army, while the British fleet, then in the Delaware, set sail for 
New York to meet the French fleet then approaching. A few months of 
suffering had put a new phase on American prospects. The dark clouds, 
opening, revealed the first beams of the day-dawn of American liberty. 
England saw another banner approaching. The flag of a powerful nation 
marked the approach of a hostile fleet. 

The campaign of '78 closed without any decisive move towards the 
establishment of American independence. The battle of Monmouth was 
adverse to the Americans. In Rhode Island the Americans failed. Savan- 
nah was taken by the British in the South. Two raids were made by 
the Canadians and Indians, the one in the valley of Wyoming, Penn- 
sylvania ; the other at Cherry Valley, New York ; both resulting in savage 
slaughter. It was a year of skirmishing and preparation. One event, how- 
ever, points directly to an Overruling Power. The circumstances were as 
follows : Count d'Estaing's fleet attempted to attack the British squadron 
in New York bay ; but the bar at the entrance prevented the passage of the 
French vessels. D'Estaing next sailed for Rhode Island, and General Sul- 
livan proceeded to Providence to co-operate with him in an attack on New- 
port. On the 9th of August, Sullivan secured a favorable position on the 
island. A joint attack by land and sea was planned for the following day. 
On that morning the fleet of Lord Howe came in sight ; and D'Estaing 
sailed out to give battle. Just as the two squadrons were about to begin an 
engagement a storm arose by which the fleets were parted and greatly dam- 
aged. D'Estaing repaired to Boston, and Howe returned to New York. 
What special Providence in this storm ? (1) August is not the month for 
ocean tempests ; (2) The British are usually victorious over the French on 
the sea; (3) It is probable that the French would have been defeated, since 
Howe would not have offered battle had he not been so able as to have been 
quite sure of a victory ; (4) A French defeat at that time would have been 
fatal to the American cause, so it would appear. The storm is said to have 
been sudden and violent. Jehovah rides upon the storm. The winter of 
1778-79 was passed by the American army at Middlebrook. There was 
much discouragement among the soldiers ; for they were without pay, food, 
or proper clothing. The influence of Washington prevented a mutiny. 
The campaign of 1779 did not establish American freedom. So far the 
French had accomplished but little. The national treasury was bankrupt. 
The army was paid only on promises. Great Britain was still for war. 
The levies of sailors and soldiers made by Parliament amounted to a hun- 
dred and twenty thousand, while the expenses of the War Department set 
at twenty million pounds sterling. The campaign of 1780 was princi- 
pally in the South. Various reverses were the fruits of the Southern con- 
test. It was in that quarter and during that campaign that Thomas Sum- 
ter and Francis Marion acquired such celebrity as successful raiders on the 



572 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

British lines. During this campaign the South suffered severely. 1780 
was noted also for giving birth to the conspiracy of Arnold, which cast a 
gloom over the American cause. Still the attitude of the French in send- 
ing a squadron with 6,000 land troops, and that of Holland deciding in 
favor of American independence were bright openings between the war- 
clouds, so dense in the southern heavens, which gave the infant nation, 
struggling in its birth-throws, hopes of final success. 

The campaign of 1781 opened under a gloom. The condition of the 
army was sad in the extreme — " no food, no pay, no clothing." The first 
day of the year was noted for the mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops who 
marched on Philadelphia. At Princeton the emissaries of Sir Henry Clin- 
ton tempted them by the offer of money and clothing to desert the Ameri- 
can standard. These were answered by being seized and delivered to Gen- 
eral Wayne to be hung. About the middle of January the New Jersey 
brigade revolted. Congress, being much alarmed, obtained money of France, 
and by other arrangements satisfied the disaffected soldiers. The first efforts 
of the season were against Arnold, the traitor, who had become a British 
ofl&cer. The armies of the South soon came under the command of General 
Green, an ofl&cer of great worth. It was soon evident to Cornwallis, who 
was then at the head of the British forces in the South, that the Amer- 
icans had a man who would do much towards reconquering those South- 
ern States so recently overrun by the royal forces. Worn out with his 
southern successes, Lord Cornwallis, in May, took charge of the forces 
in Virginia, then defended by General Lafayette. " In the meantime. Ad- 
miral de Varney had arrived upon the coast with a powerful French fleet 
and 6,000 soldiers of the elite of the French army, under Count de Rocham- 
beau. Cornwallis was obliged to fortify himself at Yorktown, blockaded 
by the fleet of Count de Grasse, and besieged by the allied army of French 
and Americans, waiting for Sir Henry Clinton to send him relief from 
New York, (Clinton, deceived by Washington, sent no relief). On the 
19th of October, 1781, he was compelled to surrender his army of 7,000 
men — an event which produced such a change of feeling in England as 
to cause the resignation of the ministry, and the dispatch of General Sir 
Guy Carleton to New York with offers of terms of peace. The prelim- 
inaries were signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, and on September 3, 
1783, peace was concluded between England and France, Holland, and 
America. The independence of each of the several States was acknowl- 
edged, with a liberal settlement of territorial boundaries. In April a cessa- 
tion of hostilities had been proclaimed, and the American army disbanded ; 
New York, which had been held by the English through the whole war, 
was evacuated November 25 ; on December 4, General Washington took 
leave of his companions in arms, and December 23 resigned into the 
hands of Congress his commission as commander." " From the retreat of 
Lexington, April 19, 1775, to the surrender of Yorktown, October 19, 1781, 
in 24 engagements, including the surrender of two armies, the British 
losses in the field were not less than 25,000 men, while those of the Ameri- 
cans were about 8,000." 



AMERICAN PHASE. 573 

Two events are here worthy of special note : (1) The last great battle 
for independence, and the first resolution for independence were of the 
same State, Virginia; (2) On the 16th of October, when nearly every gun 
of the British was dismounted, Cornwallis attempted to escape by night by 
way of Gloucester point, but the attempt was frustrated by a furious storm 
which scattered his boats. Jehovah in His cloud-chariots fought against 
the British. Two other problems had now been solved : (a) when in the 
French and Indian war it was to be decided which should be the ruling 
family of the New World, after a severe struggle, it was decided in favor of 
the Anglo-Saxon ; (6) but when it was contested whether these Angio- 
Saxon colonies should be subordinated to the mother country, it was de- 
cided that they should be an independent people. No person, intelligently 
tracing the contest through its various phases, can fail to see the Divine 
hand, the same great Captain that led Israel through the Red Sea. It is 
said (Judg. V. 20) " that the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 
And may we not say with equal truth that the storms in their courses 
fought against the British. God designed the New World to be under the 
domination of the Anglo-Saxon, but he was to be an American Anglo- 
Saxon — not British. The New World requires a new man for its develop- 
ment ; one whose arterial blood is composed of the blood of all races as- 
similated. 

A nation is born : — the royal infant of the New World ; but it is an 
infant of days, in its swaddling clothes, without another to care for it ; yet 
it had a sleepless Father to watch over its " manger.' We now enter upon 
the most critical period of the nation's history, the formative epoch, or the 
epoch of Assimilation and Union. The pious Staughton once said, "God 
sifted the chaff of three kingdoms for the grain with which to sow the wilrls 
of America." The thought is excellent, but not sufficiently comprehensive. 
What race has not its representative element in the North American 
Republic ? A noted work has the following : " No country has been peopled 
by such a variety of nations. New England was settled by English Puri- 
tans, and a few Scottish and Welsh ; New York, by Dutch; Pennsylvania, 
by Quakers and Germans ; Maryland, by English Roman Catholics; Dela- 
ware and New Jersey, by Dutch and Swedes; Virginia, by English cava- 
liers; the Carolinas, in part by French Huguenots; Lousiana, Florida, 
Texas, and California, by Spanish ; Utah, by Mormons, chiefly from Eng- 
land, Wales, and Denmark. Immigration from Ireland, Germany, Eng- 
land, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and Sweden, has been large and 
progressive. In the year ending June 30, 1875, the total number of immi- 
grants that arrived in the United States was 227,377. Of these there came 
from Great Britain and Ireland 85,632, Germany 47,760, China 16,433. In 
1875-76 the number of immigrants were 169,986. From 1815 to 1874 the 
immigration from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States was 
4,905,262. The Germans and Irish, and their descendants in the United 
States, probably form one-third of the entire populations." — Library of Uni- 
versal Knowledge. 

Though the American Anglo-Saxon is the iominant family of the 



574 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Republic, still its vitality is a chemical compound of all kindreds. The 
veinous blood of all races, more or less assimilated in the lungs of the true 
American, carries its energetic, life-giving powers along the arterial chan- 
nels of the new organism. The native American, in his composition, is a 
cosmopolite. The construction of a homogeneous nation out of such a 
heterogeneous mass was a miracle. At the close of the war the condition 
of the colonies was alarming. They had gained their liberty at the cost of 
everything. They had no Constitution, no Union, except that which com- 
mon danger (now past) had created; no money, an unpaid army; a vast 
debt, reckoned from $38,000,000 to $80,000,000, and no legal body to assume 
and pay the debt. The Congress was simply a creature of the States, each 
State now independent and sovereign. Their confederacy had been colo- 
nial, it must now become national. The problem now to solve is, how can 
we make one nation out of thirteen- nations? The war-debt was not 
claimed by the States. It was the child of Congress, and yet Congress at 
that time had no money, neither had they power to raise money. By the 
tacit consent of the States they had contracted a vast debt, without any 
means or power for its liquidation. Such mountains rose up before the 
chief men of the nation (in prospect). During the seven years of war to 
carry it through to a triumphant termination, occupied their entire 
thoughts. Now that it was over, everything else demanded their atten- 
tion. There had been for many years a Union among the New England 
colonies, and as early as 1775 Benjamin Franklin had presented to the 
colonial Congress a plan for the perpetual confederation of the States. But 
the war-movements pushed them out of notice. Congress assumed and 
exercised authority, and legislated for the country by the tacit permission 
of the colonies, said colonies claiming the sovereign power. In June 1776, 
a committee was appointed by Congress to draft a plan of confederation. 
The plan which was drawn was discussed till November 15, 1777, when by 
a vote the articles of confederation were adopted. Being submitted to the 
State legislatures, they were returned with many amendments. They were 
not ratified by all the States till March, 1781. This confederation was 
"A Loose Union of Independent Commonwealths." Congress possessed 
the legislative and executive powers. The States were the sovereign. 
There was no chief executive, nor any general judiciary. The consent of 
nine States was necessary to complete any act of legislation. This union, 
imperfect as it was, was declared to be perpetual. The first meeting of 
Congress (March 2, 1781) under the new form of government, made clear 
its defects. The States being the sovereign. Congress had no efficient or 
working power. By the recommendation of Washington, a convention of 
the States by representatives met at Annapolis, September 1786. It 
adjourned till the following year. And in May, 1787, the delegates assem- 
bled at Philadelphia, Washington being chosen president of the conven- 
tion. We may truly say that it was the chief of all assemblies that had 
yet been held in the New World, since it gave a new constitution to the 
Royal Infant of the Western Hemisphere. " On the 29th of May, Edmund 
Randolph introduced a resolution to adopt a new constitution. A com- 



AMERICAN PHASE. 575 

mittee was accordingly appointed to revise the articles of confederation. 
Early in September the report of the committee was adopted, and that 
report was The Constitution of the United States." Relative to the 
adoption of the new constitution the people were divided into two great 
rival parties; Federalists, composed of Washington, Jay, Madison, and 
Hamilton, and all who supported the constitution; and Anti-Federalists, 
those who opposed it, as giving too much power to the central government 
or the Corliss of the rising empire. It was formed to have controlling 
power, not only over the States and State governments, but over private 
citizens of the States. It gave this central government power sufficient to 
control and regulate the entire civil machinery, so as to constitute a com- 
plete and perfect Union. The points were (1) a powerful centralized gov- 
ernment ; (2) the sovereignty and rights of the independent States. The 
Federalist papers, written by Hamilton and Madison, answered all the 
objections of the Anti-Federalists, and established the true principles of all 
free government. Unity and efficiency of national action require every 
government to be under the guidance of one executive chief The new 
constitution was not adopted by all the States without certain reserves. 
In 1787-88 it was adopted in 11 States by small majorities. Virginia rati- 
fied the constitution with the declaration that she was at liberty to with- 
draw from the Union whenever its powers were used for oppression, and 
New York, after Hamilton had declared that no State could ever be carried 
by an armed force. The constitution was finally adopted by the 13 States. 
Since this document with its 15 amendments is now the constitution of the 
United States, it is well to examine some of its features. The first item 
that claims our special note is its preamble: "We, the people of the 
United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, 
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of North America." A constitution is a system of rules or laws ordained 
by the sovereign power of a kingdom. State or people for its own govern- 
ment or mode of action as a body. Here the name of the sovereign is 
People : defined. We, the People of the United States, do ordain and estab- 
lish this Constitution for ourselves and our posterity; for what purposes? 
(1) For a more perfect Union of all our elements of power, as to races, and 
institutions, political, social, and religious, so as out of such a vast variety 
of material to make one harmonious whole. (2) To secure universal 
justice between man and man. (3) To secure peace and tranquility 
among all classes of our citizens and people. (4) To provide for our public 
safety, that by our united strength we can secure and defend our nation- 
ality. (5) And to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity. We are here taught the origin and character of the American 
Republic : the People are the Sovereign ; their officers, whom they elect, 
legislative, judicial and executive, are their Servants, chosen for conven- 
ience to transact their business in their stead. The constitution divides 
its nationality into three great departments of power : (1) the legislative, 



576 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

(2) the judicial, (3) and the executive. The powers of each department 
are fully defined, and the tenure of office fixed. To aid the reader, we give 
the following extract from the history of the United States by Ridpath : 
"(1) The legislative power is vested in Congress — composed of a Senate 
and a House of Representatives. The Senators are chosen for a term of 
six years by the legislatures of the several States. Each State is repre- 
sented by two Senators. The Representatives are elected by the people, 
and each State is entitled to a number of representatives proportionate to 
its population. The members of this branch are chosen for two years. 
The executive power of the United States is vested in a President, chosen 
for four years by the Electoral College. The electors composing the college 
are chosen by the people; and each State is entitled to a number of electors 
equal to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. The 
duty of the President is to enforce the laws of Congress in accordance with 
the constitution. He is also commander-in-chief of the armies and navies. 
In case of the death or resignation of the President, the Vice-President 
becomes chief magistrate. The judicial power of the United States is 
vested in a supreme court and in inferior courts established by Congress. 
The highest judicial officers is the chief-justice. The judges hold their 
offices during life or good behavior. The right of trial by jury is granted 
in all cases except the impeachment of public officers. Treason against 
the United States consists in levying war against them, or in giving aid to 
their enemies. The Constitution provides that new territories may be 
organized and new States admitted into the Union ; that to every State 
shall be guaranteed a republican government; and that the constitution 
may be altered or amended by the consent of two-thirds of both houses of 
Congress and three-fourths of the legislatures of the States." There have 
been fifteen amendments to the constitution under this provision. Of 
these amendments Articles I. to X. inclusive, were proposed by the first 
Congress in 1789-90, Article XI. in 1793, Article XII. in 1803, Article XIII. 
in 1865, Article XIV. in 1868, and Article XV. in 1870. The XVth amend- 
ment we subjoin since it is more directly connected with the assimilation 
of races in the American Republic, and serves to strengthen its unity. 
"Article XV., Sec. 1, the right of the citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on 
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." "The State 
constitutions must conform to the Constitution of the United States." 
"An interesting question has been pending in California as to Constitu- 
tional and States rights. In 1879 that State adopted amendments to her 
constitution, which prohibits the introduction of Chinese into the State as 
citizens. It is alleged that this provision conflicts with the treaty between 
the United States and China, and is therefore void, inasmuch as all treaties 
made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States 
shall be the supreme law of the land." On the first Wednesday of January, 
1789, George Washington was unanimously elected President of the United 
States, and John Adams Vice-President (the electoral ballots being cast 
early in April). With this event on the 14th of April the machinery of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 577 

the new national government began to revolve its connected wheels. The 
Seal of the Nation calls for examination before we follow the Republic 
through its difficulties, and its extraordinary growth. 

Seal of the United States. — The origin and adoption of the seal 
belong to our historic sketch, and is here in place, since it is the seal of a 
nation whose acknowledged birth is a record of the civilized world, and 
which is henceforth to stamp the documents of a peoj)le first acting under 
their new constitution. Its origin is Anglo-Saxon, and is traced to an Eng- 
lish noblemen. "The suggestion of the items upon the Great Seal was 
from Sir Sohn Prestwich, Bart., an Englishman. He gave the suggestions 
to the American Minister, John Adams, and thence the same were conveyed 
to Congress and adopted June 20, 1782, and re-adopted by the new Congress 
September 15, 1789. The act provided for an obverse and reverse. The 
reverse is not used. The first and original seal, by use, is worn out. The 
one now in use is the second. It differs from the first by accident, seven 
arrows were left out of the eagle's talon (the first having 13). The obverse 
side of the seal (the one used) has an eagle with expanded wings : the bird 
is perfect, not double headed and deformed, as in the other case where the 
eagle has (been) or is the national bird. The striped escutcheon on its 
breast, in its beak a scroll, inscribed with a motto 'E Pluribus Unum.' Out 
of many one. Over the eagle's head is a glory, the parting of clouds by 
light; in the opening appear 13 stars forming a constellation argent on an 
azure field. In the dexter or right talon is an olive branch, a symbol of 
peace; in the sinister or left talon is a bundle of 13 arrows. But it is on 
the reverse side of the great seal that we have a wonder. Here we have an 
unfinished pyramid : a portion of the top is gone (never there — W.), exactly 
the same as the great pyramid in Egypt is at this day. Above the top of 
the pyramid is a triangle, surrounded by a glory; and in the centre is an 
All-seeing eye, over the eye we have Annuit Coeptis, which means. He 
'prospers our beginning.' On the base of the pyramid we have in letters, 
1776, and underneath the following motto, 'Novus ordo seclorum,' mean- 
ing 'a new era in the ages.'" — (Rev. Joseph Wild, D.D.) These are some 
of the facts of its origin and elements. As to its true and primary intent 
and its significance as a seal of the great North American Republic, we 
shall give further notice. There is a remarkable history connected with 
the reverse side. 

The history of the Great American family as a compound or aggregate 
nationality will now come under review. We shall trace its growth, as- 
similation of its various family developments, and its new family traits. 
We shall examine its antagonisms that we may discern the Divine power 
in keeping such discordant elements in a Unity of national movement. 
To discover the agency of Jehovah in their acted and written history is our 
province. We do not propose to write the profane history of this new 
American Anglo-Saxon people, but to compose a truthful outline sketch 
of God's purpose in raising up in this Western Hemisphere such a won- 
derful combination of all the great families of the Old World. In so do- 
ing we bring to view one of the terminating links of Jehovah's chain of 
37 



578 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

National purpose. The key of history is that which enables us to un- 
lock the temple of truth relative to Jehovah's purpose in the universal and 
endless reign of His Son, the Messiah. Such is the special mission of all 
history, both sacred and profane. 

The American Republic, under its present constitution with its amend- 
ments, has been carried through 21 administrations, and is now entering 
upon its 22d. The following is a list of the presidents of said adminis- 
trations : (1) 1789, George Washington, of Mt. Vernon, Va. (2) 1797, 
John Adams, of Quincy, Mass. (3) 1801, Thomas Jefferson, of Monticello, 
Va. (4) 1809, James Madison, of Montpelier, Va. (5) 1817, James Mon- 
roe, of Loudon County, Va. (6) 1825, John Quincy Adams, of Quincy, 
Mass. (7) 1829, Andrew Jackson, of Nashville, Tenn. (8) 1837, Martin 
Van Buren, of Kinderhook, N. Y. (9) 1841, William Henry Harrison, of 
North Bend, Ohio. Died in office, April 4, 1841. (10) 1841, John Tyler, of 
Williamsburg, Va. (11) 1845, James Knox Polk, of Nashville, Tenn. (12) 
1849, Zachary Taylor, of Baton Rouge, La. (13) 1850, Millard Fillmore, of 
Buffalo, N. Y. (14) 1853, Franklin Pierce, of Concord, N. H. (15) 1857, 
James Buchanan, of Lancaster, Pa. (16) 1861, Abraham Lincoln, of Spring- 
field, 111. Assassinated April 14, 1865. (17) 1865, Andrew Johnson, of 
Greenville, Tenn. (18) 1869, Ulysses S. Grant, of Galena, 111. (19) 1876, 
Rutherford B. Hayes, born at Delaware, Ohio. (20) 1880, James A. Gar- 
field, of Ohio. Assassinated. (21) 1880, Chester A. Arthur, of New York. 
(22) 1885, Grover Cleveland, of New York. The special features of growth, 
assimilation, and Providential events of each administration will aid us to 
exhibit the Divine purpose relative to the North American Republic. Un- 
der the administration of Washington the Republic was in its earliest in- 
fancy. The machinery of government was new. Its officers were without 
proper experience, and the States, accustomed to exercise sovereign au- 
thority, were illy prepared to submit to the workings of the new supreme 
central government. The various departments of State, the Legislative, 
Judicial, and Executive, were now, for the first time, being officered, and 
put in running order. Much friction was a necessary consequence. The 
three departments, limited in their powers, had to be formed into one har- 
monious whole. This result required much time and labor. The position 
occupied by Washington was highly responsible and full of perplexity. 
The States had worked as one under common danger. That being past, 
local selfishness arose to rule. 

Administrations of the North American Republic from 1789 to 1885, 
their growth, special trials, assimilation and development, physical, politi- 
cal, social and religious through each administration will be noticed. 

(1) The administration of George Washington included two terms, 
1789 to 1797. On the 30th of April, 1789, Washington was inaugurated 
first President of the Infant Union. He had watched over its birth strug- 
gles, and, with parental solicitude, marked its first breathing. He is now 
chosen to be its chief nurse during the years of its helpless infancy. Under 
a new constitution, with its departments to be filled and managed by inex- 
perienced officers ; a heavy war debt impending ; without money or credit ; 



AMERICAN PHASE. 579 

with States united only oy common danger now removed ; with hostile 
Spaniards at New Orleans preventing the navigation of the Mississippi 
by American ships; with hostile Indians occupying the Western terri- 
tories, these could not fail to render Washington's administration one of 
peculiar trials. His first term of office was consumed in the necessary pro- 
visions to meet the demands of the national debt, to reconcile the States to 
the workings of the new system of government, to satisfy the people to 
general restrictions on personal liberty for public safety, and to teach the 
surrounding enemies to fear and respect the infant Republic. It was the 
first and the trial term. It showed to the States, and to other nations, that 
the American Nation had vitality, and a fixed purpose to grow ifp into a 
great people worthy of the Western Hemisphere. The difficulties that be- 
set Washington's first term were as follows : (1) The vast war d6bt of all 
the States, now assumed by the national government, and the providing of 
means for its early and complete liquidation ; (2) the want of experience 
with the State legislatures in working in their new circumscribed bounda- 
ries. The precise limits between State and National savereignty were not 
distinctly defined or clearly understood. There was a constant struggle be- 
tween the centripetal and centrifugal forces ; between State and National 
powers ; between the rights reserved and those surrendered. There was 
with one party a constant fear and dread of a great overtowering centraliza- 
tion of power to the destruction of State sovereignty ; and with the other 
party a fear of national weakness, through want of sufficient power to carry 
Dut the provisions of the New Constitution. The idea couched in the " E 
Pluribus Unum," was a matter of continued strife. While one party hung 
to the old thought, expressed by " Pluribus " the " Unum" was the sacred 
shrine for the Federalist. Unity and plurality instead of unity in plurality, 
divided national thought. This problem of unity or plurality was not con- 
fined to Washington's administration. It has been the national issue of 
every administration. The "State sovereignty" problem has been a dan- 
gerous element in our national union. The hand of God has been dis- 
tinctly visible under every administration acting in behalf of national 
unity. The political world is under Divine control, as to its national move- 
ments, equally with the physical world the discernment of this cardinal 
truth is the key of history. American national unity carries on its phase 
the imprint of Jehovah. All movements that tend to unity have finally 
succeeded ; while all plurality of national ideas (State sovereignty ideas) 
have been overruled. Washington's second term of office had some foreign 
elements of disturbance. These originated in France and England, and 
afiected American commerce. Their true origin can be traced to the French 
Revolution. 

That European earthquake tested the strength of all thrones. The 
lower French classes were struggling for power, and when it came into their 
hands it generated tyrants, whose thirst for blood had neither reason nor 
limit. The republicans (democracy) sympathized with the revolution, 
while the federalists (the national government party) was opposed to it. 
Party spirit ran high. The government took the side of England in the 



680 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

great European contest. Difficulties arose between the English and Ameri- 
can governments. " The Americans accused the English of carrying ofi 
large numbers of negroes and other property at the close of the war, 
while the English accused the Americans of sequestrating the property 
of loyalists, which they had engaged by treaty to restore to them. Mr. Jay 
succeeded in adjusting these difficulties. The whisky insurrection in Penn- 
sylvania took place under Washington's administration. The internal 
duties on that article was the producing cause. In 1794 Congress imposed 
a tax on all ardent spirits distilled in the United States. The collection 
of this tax was resisted in Western Pennsylvania, the people being in- 
cited by Citizen Genet, the French minister. This " Whisky Insurrection" 
was put down by the national troops. The French party, being enemies 
of the general government, favored the uprising. It was another instance 
of the antagonistic elements called States' Rights, struggling to sever the 
God-established Union. The " E Pluribus Unum." God designed this 
country for one, and only one, "great people." 

Difficulties arose between the United States and the Miami Indians 
which was attended with the loss of men and money ; also, between the 
nation and the Dey of Algiers, who, as pirates, were j)reying upon the 
commerce of civilized nations. These attacks and wars demonstrated the 
necessity of a strong government. 

Notwithstanding the many trials that darkened Washington's ad- 
ministration, these eight years resulted in much good. Its constitution 
had been severely tested and adapted to the new order of things. The na- 
tion had increased in its State membership. On the 4th of March, 1791, 
Vermont came into the Union as the 14th State; on the first of June, 1792, 
Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the i5th State; and in 1796, 
Tennessee, as the 16th State, came into the Union. In 1795 the boundary 
between the United States and Louisiana was settled, and Spain granted 
to the Americans the free navigation of the Mississippi. The American 
Union was at this period formed of sixteen States. The various races 
had been educated for eight years in the great American school of morals, 
politics, and religion. The races had mingled their blood by inter-mar- 
riages, and all circumstances favored the growth of the New Child. A 
new man in the world's history was developing into early youth. It is 
evident that God designed that in the veins of the American Anglo- 
Saxon should flow the blood of all the families of the earth ; and that 
to this end America should be the world's Asylum, as well as the land of 
civil and religious liberty. To this end it was necessary for the land to be 
free to emigrants from all countries and free for the promulgation of every 
variety of thought ; a land of free emigration and free speech. 

Washington's administration, occupying the early infancy of the Re- 
public, tended towards restriction in both of these vital particulars. The 
influx of such masses, unassimilated, threatened the existence of the young 
Republic. The press uttered sentiments dangerous to American liberty. 
Still the Federalists held the supreme power for the first twelve years. 

(2) Adams' Administration — 1797-1801. Dark clouds floated over the 



AMERICAN PHASE. 581 

political heavens of this administration. The young French Republic, 
governed by a Directory, composed of infidels and men of strange and 
fanciful ideas of human domination, assumed authority to force the young 
American Republic into alliance with her against England. This was re- 
fused, and the American ambassadors refused, except on payment of a 
quarter of a million of dollars into the French treasury. To this demand 
Pinckney (one of the American ambassadors) returned this noted answer : 
" The United States have millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute." 
War soon commenced on the ocean, and a terrible struggle was initiated, 
when the fall of the Directory, by Napoleon, put an end to the national 
dispute. Napoleon made peace with the United States. Congressional 
legislation, however, was, in some particulars, unwise and exceedingly un- 
popular. (1) The "Alien Law." by which the President was authorized to 
send foreigners out of the country, and the " Sedition Law," which in- 
flicted fines and imprisonment on the freedom of speech, and of the press, 
were regarded odious and tyrannical. These acts of Federal legislation de- 
stroyed the popularity of the party. The result was a change to an Anti- 
Federal administration — Adams failed to be re-elected. With Adams' ad- 
ministration closed the 18th century. The census of 1800 gave a popula- 
tion ot over five millions. In ten years the postoffices had increased from 
75 to 903; the exports from $20,000,000 to $71,000,000. The capital was 
changed from Philadelphia to the Potomac, and Washingston had become 
a city of 8,500 inhabitants. This national growth indicated great vitality 
and individual enterprise. The peaceful occupation of such a vast terri- 
tory, by such a variety of European families, trained to such a wide dis- 
tinction 111 national thought, and religious tenets, surrounded by hostile 
savages, shows the direct agency of an overruling Providence. The work 
of assimilation was progressive as the new man developed in physical, 
political, social, intellectual and religious strength. 

(3) Jefferson's Administration — 1801-1809—8 years. With Thomas 
Jefferson began the first Anti-Federal, or Democratic Administration. His 
first act was the change of officers subject to Presidential appointment, for 
the reason that the chief magistrate should be sustained by men of like 
political faith. This has been the policy of all Presidents to the present 
time. Civil service reform is striving to correct the practice. The un- 
popular acts, " The Alien Law " and " The Sedition Law," were repealed. 
The system of internal revenue was also abolished. His attention was then 
turned to the territory of the " Great West," the elements of new States 
then in embryo. In 1800 a line, drawn through the Northwest Territory, 
from the mouth of the Great Miami river north to the southern extremities 
of Lakes Erie and Michigan, cut off" the territory which became the State of 
Ohio in 1803. 

All the country west of that line was called " Indiana Territory," having 
William Henry Harrison for its appointed governor. About the same time 
Mississippi Territory was organized. Louisiana having come into the pos- 
session of France by a forced cession from Spain, was sold to the United 
States for $11,250,000, the American government assuming the payment of 



682 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

certain debts due from France to American citizens, the sum not to exceed 
13,750,000. This purchase extinguished the French claim to all that vast 
region west of the Mississippi. Out of the southern division of the pur- 
chase was organized the "Territory of Orleans," which grew into the State 
of Louisiana. The remainder was called the Territory of Louisiana. The 
acquisition of this immense wilderness formed one of the most noted events 
in American history, since it disposed of two European rivals, and vastly 
augmented territory. Well did Mr. Livingston (the American minister) 
exclaim to the French minister, as they arose from signing the treaty : 
"This is the noblest work of our lives." The work accomplished by John 
Marshall, who became Chief-Justice of the United States in 1801, was a 
great work for the Union, that of adapting the common law and consti- 
tution of England, which were used by the colonies, to the altered form of 
government. Such were the chief acts of the first four years of Jefferson's 
administration. But he had work beyond the seas that claimed his atten- 
tion. The Mediterranean pirates of the emperors of Morrocco, Algiers and 
Tripoli, were troublesome to the American merchantmen. These pirates 
were severely punished and their governments brought to terms, and peace 
followed June, 1805. The duel between Vice-President Burr and Alexander 
Hamilton (who was deliberately murdered) took place m 1804. In 1805 
Michigan Territory was organized. During the same spring commenced 
the exploration of the far West by Captains Lewis and Clarke, which con- 
tinued for two years, beyond the borders of civilization. After wandering 
six thousand miles over mountains, deserts, along rivers, creeks and lakes, 
over plains, and among unknown Indian tribes, they returned home, with 
the loss of only one out of thirty-five soldiers and hunters. The treason of 
Burr took place during the second term of Jefierson's administration. Burr 
conspired with Blannerhasset, an Irish exile, who had erected a stately 
mansion on an island of the Ohio river, about thirteen miles below Marietta. 
His plan was to raise an army, invade Mexico, detatch the south-western 
states from the Union, and overthrow the government of the United States. 
Suspected of treasonable designs, his military preparations on the island 
were broken up. Burr was arrested in Alabama, taken to Richmond, Va., 
and tried for treason, Chief-Justice Marshall presided at the trial, while 
Burr conducted his own defense. The verdict was " Not guilty — for want 
of sufficient proof." " Burr afterward practiced law in New York, lived to 
old age, and died in poverty." — Ridpath. 

The hostile attitude of England and France toward American com- 
merce (they being at war with each other) seriously affected the prosperity 
of the Western Republic. The blockades of the ports of those countries, 
and England's extraordinary claim to citizenship, joined to the " Embargo 
Act" (by which all American vessels were detained in the ports of the 
United States), for a time, almost annihilated American foreign commerce. 
Necessity called for speedy river navigation. Some means was to be de- 
vised by which the river system of America, so vast and complicated, might 
be utilized as a medium of internal commerce. The labor of flat-boating 
down the streams and of drawing them empty up stream by the power of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 583 

human muscle, was excessive dangerous and unprofitable. Necessity, there- 
fore, was the father of steam navigation. At this critical period of American 
history, Robert Fulton (an Irishman by descent and a Pennsylvanian by 
birth) began at New York to construct the first steamboWt. Its first trip 
was on the Hudson river to Albany. From this rude outline sprang an 
offspring so infinitely numerous, as to cover every river, lake, sea, and ocean 
on the face of the globe, with its palatial structures. 

Jefferson's administration of eight years, though afflicted by the work- 
ings of a European war, and by Burr's treason, which aimed at the over- 
throw of the Union, still, was one of great interest and national progress. 
The assimilation of the races continued to advance. The people had be- 
come more accustomed to the workings of the general government. The 
new face of liberty (democratic) had become familiar and pleasing to the 
masses; the wilds of the Unknown West were explored; the laws and 
constitution, formerly English and Colonial, were adapted to the new order 
of things, and the introduction of steam navigation made the American 
Republic a vast hive into which the oppressed of all the old nationalities 
were swarming — the New World for the new and "great people." 

(4) Madison's Administration— 1809-1817— 8 years. The war of 1812. 
Madison was elected by the Democratic or Anti-Federal party, through the 
influence of Jefferson, whose Secretary of State he had been. This dominant 
party, being in sympathy with the French Republic, were hostile to Eng- 
land. The American ships were, by an act of Congress, not allowed to 
trade with Great Britain. Great Britain then enforced the "Orders in 
Council," forbidding all American trade with France and her allies. A 
crisis was now rapidly approaching. " The government of the United States 
had fallen completely under the control of the party sympathizing with the 
French." The American people had resolved to fight rather than be dis- 
graced by Great Britain. On the 19th of June war was declared against 
England. The war of 1812 was preceded by Indian hostilities. These 
outbreaks were met by Governor Wm. Henry Harrison. This war was 
protracted and bloody, the Indians being joined by the British. The con- 
flicts with England began on the ocean. The naval engagements were well 
contested by the Union vessels. On land the Republic suffered many re- 
verses. The reasons were evident, this war had not the sympathy of the 
entire American people. The Federalists were of the English party, and 
were therefore opposed to the war. The whole affair was considered demo- 
cratic in its origin, and consequently to be principally sustained by the 
dominant party. 

The surrender of General William Hull, governor of Michigan, was 
one of the first acts of the war. The census of 1810 showed a population 
of 240,000. There were 17 States. On the 8th of April, 1812, Louisiana 
came into the Union as the 18th State. After the surrender of Hull the 
whole of Michigan territory fell into the hands of the British. Canada 
and the lakes soon became active war territory. The British and Ameri- 
cans fought with spirit and their conflicts were marked by varied success. 
Victory often changed its banners. In the re-election of Madison in the 



684 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

fall of 1812, the war was pushed with greater vigor. The American army 
was formed into three divisions, (1) the division of the North under Gen- 
eral Wade Hampton ; the army of the Centre under the Commander-in- 
Chief; and the Western division was first under General Winchester, then 
commanded by General Harrison. The Western division first moved to- 
wards Lake Erie, where they soon had conflicts with the British and 
Indians. At first they suffered severe reverses, but under General Harrison 
they had success. On the lake the Americans were victorious. Perry's 
dispatch to Harrison was laconic : " We have met the enemy, and they are 
ours." The battle of the Thames, in which fell the great Indian chief 
Tecumtha, was a decisive victory for the Americans. All that Hull had 
lost was now recovered. War now broke out among the Creeks of Alabama. 
Fort Mims fell into their hands and 400 whites were murdered. The gov- 
ernors of Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi made immediate preparations 
to drive the war into the country of the savage Creeks. General Jackson 
(afterwards President) with 900 Tennesseeans first invaded their country 
and defeated them in three battles. In the fifth conflict the nation was 
completely conquered. General Dearborn, at the head of the army of the 
Centre, went against Toronto. The city fell into the hands of the Ameri- 
cans, though under a distressing accident, the blowing up of the British 
magizine, with fearful loss of life. The campaign in Canada M^as not at- 
tended with any benefit to the American cause. Since the British in their 
turn invaded and laid waste American territory. On the sea successes and 
defeats followed in quick succession. British men-of-war blockaded New 
England, and entering the Chesapeake did much damage. The conflicts of 
1813 closed without decisive results. Canada was again invaded in 1813-14. 
The battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane were severe and partly suc- 
cesses. The British again invaded American territory, but were severely 
handled on Lake Champlain. 

The British fleet of twenty-one vessels, attended by an armj^ of 4,000, 
entered the Chesapeake to attack Washington and Baltimore. A battle was 
fought; the Americans were defeated. Washington was taken and all the 
public buildings, except the patent office, were burned. " The unfinished 
capitol and the President's house were left a mass of ruins." The British 
invading army and navy failed before Fort McHenry and Baltimore was 
saved. The fisheries of New England were broken up and the foreign com- 
merce of the Eastern States totally ruined. 

The war had been opposed by many in New England from the begin- 
ning. The members of the Federal party cried out against the war as a 
French scheme to cripple the resources of England. A convention, repre- 
sented by the Eastern States, met at Hartford ; and remaining in session, 
with closed doors, for nearly three weeks, published an address to the coun- 
try and adjourned. This was considered treasonable by the parlying jDower 
(the Democrats), but it closed without any serious effects against the power 
of the Union. 

The Spanish authorities of Florida were in sympathy with England. 
Pensacola was used as a post of a British fleet to fit out expeditions against 



AMERICAN PHASE. 585 

American ports in the South. General Jackson, commander of the South- 
ern army, remonstrated with the Spaniards in vain. He marched against 
Pensacola, stormed the town and expelled the British from Florida. A 
British army of 12,000, under Sir Edward Packenham, designing the con- 
quest of Louisiana, marched against New Orleans. On the 8th of January, 
1815, the battle of New Orleans was fought, the British suffering a severe 
defeat. 700 being slain, 1,400 wounded and 500 taken prisoners. The 
American loss amounted to eight killed and thirteen wounded. This was 
the termination of the war on the land ; the ocean warfare was still pro- 
tracted. After the naval victory of February 20th and March 23d the con- 
flict was ended and peace was declared. Here terminated the last war be- 
tween England and the United States. Their interests and blood relation- 
ship have kept them at peace. At the close of Madison's administration, 
Indiana (December, 1816,) was admitted into the Union as the 19th State. 
The Algerine Pirates, who during the war had renewed their depredations 
on American commerce, were subdued and suffered a severe retribution. 

The treaty of peace between England and the United States was singu- 
lar. They agreed to be at peace. " Not one of the issues, to decide which 
the war had been undertaken, was even mentioned. Of the impressment of 
American seamen not a word was said. The wrongs done to the commerce 
of the United States were not referred to. Of ' free trade and sailors' 
rights,' the battle-cry of the American navy, no mention was made. The 
treaty was chiefly devoted to the settlement of unimportant boundaries and 
of some small islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy." — Ridpath. The 
Colonization Society, to provide a refuge for free persons of color, was 
formed. Liberia, in Western Africa, was selected as the seat of the pro- 
posed colony. 

(5) Monroe's Administration — 1817-1825 — 8 years. Monroe, a man of 
great talent and superior accomplishments, was inaugurated on the 4th of 
March, 1817. He adopted the policy of Madison — Democratic. The pay- 
ment of the National debt, which had swelled to large dimensions, claimed 
the attention and secured the energies of all parties. The administration 
consulted strict economy, and in a few years the debt was honorably extin- 
guished. In December, 1817, Mississippi organized into a State; came into 
the Union ; it being the 20th. As the number of sovereign States increased, 
the power that held them in a great national unity, was required to be 
strengthened also. The centrifugal and centripetal forces — the many and 
the one — were required to maintain the same ratio. Common danger of any 
great magnitude taught the necessity of a strong central government, one 
with sufficient power to hold the States in their legitimate orbits and repel] 
all foreign elements — the subversion of the Union. The " E Pluribus 
Unum " idea kept this national planetary system in harmonious revolution 
around the central sun — the general government. 

With Monroe's administration began the era of internal improvements. 
As states distant from the sea-coast began to form, internal communication 
by canals, improved roads, and by steam, became a matter of necessity. 
The products of the interior demanded sufficient outlets. It was a matter 



586 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

of debate whether Congress had a right to appropriate money for such pur- 
poses; and the great national road from Cumberland to Wheeling and 
westward was one of the results of that discussion. New York took the 
lead in improvements by building a canal from Buffalo to Albany, at a 
cost of $8,000,000. In 1817 the Seminole Indians of Georgia entered upon 
the war-path. They were aided by some negroes and Creeks. In 1818 
their grounds were overrun by General Jackson with his thousand rifle- 
men from Tennessee. General Jackson, in the co^lrse of this war, took pos- 
session of St. Marks, captured Pensacola, and sent the Spanish authorities 
to Havana. On the 22d of February, 1819 by treaty at Washington City, 
the king of Spain surrendered Florida to the American government, on the 
following terms : " the United States agreed to relinquish all claim to Texas 
and to pay to American citizens, for depredations committed by Spanish 
vessels, five million dollars." In 1818 Illinois came into the Union as the 
twenty-first State ; Alabama as the twenty-second State in 1819 ; Maine as 
the twenty-third State in 1820; and Missouri as the twenty-fourth State in 
1821. To this period the new States were admitted without regard to the 
institution of slavery. The North had sustained free labor, the South slave 
labor. This question now began to place the Northern and Southern sec- 
tions of the Union in a hostile attitude. A proposition was made in Con- 
gress to admit Missouri into the Union only as a free State. The protracted 
discussion gave rise to the Missouri Compromise. Its provisions were (1) 
to admit Missouri as a slave-holding State ; (2) the division of the rest of 
the Louisiana purchase by the parallel of 36J° ; (3) the admission of new 
States south of this line with or without slavery, as the people might 
decide ; (4) the prohibition of slavery in all the new States north of this 
dividing line. The President, being very popular, was re-elected in 1820. 
The piracy in the West Indies claiming attention, the government dis- 
covering their retreats, completely destroyed the sea-robbers. About this 
time the countries of South America began to declare their independence 
of foreign countries. With these the United States had sympathy, which 
gave rise to what is called the " Monroe doctrine," that the American Con- 
tinents are not subject to colonization by any European power." In the 
summer of 1824, the last visit of LaFayette to his country gave rise to 
much triumphant rejoicing through the land. Monroe's Administration 
was one of great prosperity to the republic. With twenty-four States to be 
held by one constitution, and with two rival institutions of free and slave 
labor, existing in the North and in the South, the Divine will alone had 
triumphed over human purposes. Congress had defined and fixed a per- 
petual home for servitude, even at a cost of dividing the Union. Jehovah's 
purpose was to erect upon American soil " One great people," noted for their 
love of, and possession of civil and religious liberty. 

(6) Adams', (J. Q.) Administration— 1825-1829. Adams was chosen 
by the House of Representatives and not by the votes of the people. He 
was a man of highest attainments in literature and statesmanship. He was 
well versed in the politics of the Old World as well as of the New. His ad- 
ministration met with great opposition that had been dominant for twenty- 



AMERICAN PHASE. 587 

four years, still it was one of peace and national prosperity. Mr. Adams 
was a strong advocate for internal improvements. In March, 1826, the 
Creek Indians agreed to the cession of all their claims in Georgia and to 
remove beyond the Mississippi. In 1828 the subject of the tariff, both 
for revenue and protection, was warmly discussed in Congress. A revenue 
tariff has many friends in both parties, but a protective tariff had a 
Democratic opposition. Mr. Adams failed of re-election, and General 
Jackson, who, in the previous election had received more electoral votes 
than Adams, was triumphantly elected, he receiving 178 electoral votes 
against 83 for his opponent, Mr. Adams. 

(7) Jackson's Administration — 1829-1837 — 8 years. Jackson was a 
military hero ; a man of great executive talent and inflexible honesty. 
His will had no master but the Constitution, and no labor was too severe, 
if he regarded that the public interest was involved. 700 ofl&ce-holders 
were obliged to give place to as many of his political friends. His over- 
throw of the bank of the United States was the aim of his ofl&cial life. 
Its charter was to expire by its own limitation in 1836. He was opposed 
to a re-charter. A bill to re-charter was passed by Congress in 1832, but 
the veto of the President, not being opposed by a two-thirds majority, 
killed the re-charter, and the bank had to close in 1836. The new tariff laws 
of 1831-32 caused hostile action in South Carolina. The right of a State 
to nullify an act of Congress was boldly proclaimed. The noblest con- 
testants of the principle were Colonel Hayne, Senator of South Carolina, 
for, and Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, against it, and for constitutional 
supremacy. The President denied the right of a State to nullify the 
laws of Congress. Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency and entered 
the Senate that he might defend the doctrine of his State of South Caro- 
lina, having warned the South Carolinians, he sent a body of troops under 
General Scott to proceed to Charleston. The leaders of the nullifying party 
receded from their position, and bloodshed was avoided. The tariff was, 
however, gradually reduced to the standard demanded by the South. Nul- 
lification was a centrifugal element well calculated to sever the Union ; for 
to admit the principle would be allowing the supreme power in the States 
rather than in the great central government. It would be like the sun of 
our system revolving around each plant. The unity would cease and ruin 
would follow. " E Pluribus Unum " is the supreme law of the New 
World, as to its nationalities. It is the God-given principle of the Western 
Hemisphere. The history of the first century of the American Republic 
demonstrates this Divine law. In 1832 the Indian tribes dwelling in Wis- 
consin, the Sacs, Fox, and Winnebago Indians, under the great chief Black 
Hawk, refusing to leave the grounds purchased of them by the United 
States, began a bloody war. They were defeated and Black Hawk taken 
prisoner. Being taken to Washington, on his return he advised his nation 
to make peace, which was done, they retiring from the disputed territory. 
There were difliculties with the Cherokees of Georgia, who were the most 
civilized of all the Indian family of nations. The government had pledged 
the Cherokee lands to Georgia. The legislature extended its authority 



588 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

over the Cherokee lands, denying the Cherokees and Creeks the use of the 
State courts. The Indians appealed to the President who did not think it 
wise to interfere. A reservation (Indian territory) was purchased at a cost 
of over $5,000,000, and they were finally removed, principally by military 
force, in 1837-38. The Seminole war, which began in 1835, was the most 
severe. On attempting to remove the tribe beyond the Mississippi they re- 
sisted. Osceola and Micanopy, chiefs of the nation, denied the validity of 
a former cession of the Seminole lands ; being taken prisoner, he assented 
to the terms of the former treaty. On being liberated he conspired to 
murder the whites. A bloody war followed. The Indians were defeated at 
the Wahoo Swamps, and driven into the Everglades. The bank of the 
United States being closed the surplus funds were removed to State banks, 
the financial panic of 1836-37 followed. 

In 1834 the President's power conflicted with the conduct of France. 
In 1831 the French king had agreed to pay five million dollars for injuries 
formerly done to American commerce. This payment was neglected till 
reprisals were threatened. The same measure brought Portugal to justice. 
In June, 1836, Arkansas was admitted into the Union, it being the 25th 
State. In January, 1837, Michigan, the 26th, came into the Union. 

(8) Van Buren's Administration — 1837-1841. The new administra- 
tion was first occupied in finishing the Seminole war. Colonel Zachary 
Taylor (afterwards President) defeated Osceola, took him prisoner, and car- 
ried him to Fort Moultrie where he died. The Seminoles continued the war 
and were hunted through the Everglades and swamps for more than a year. 
In 1839 the chiefs signed a treaty, yet their removal to the Indian territory 
was attended with much delay. 

In 1837 there was a serious monetary panic, "A surplus of nearly 
forty million dollars, in the national treasury, had been distributed among 
the States. Owing to the abundance of money the credit system was 
greatly extended. The banks of the country were multiplied to seven 
hundred. Vast issues of irredeemable paper money increased the oppor- 
tunities for fraud. The bills of these unsound banks were receivable for 
the public lands. Seeing that the government was likely to be defrauded 
out of millions, President Jackson issued an order called the ' Specie Cir- 
cular,' by which the land agents were directed to receive nothing hut coin in 
payment for lands. The effects of this circular followed in the first year of 
Van Buren's administration. The banks suspended specie payment. In 
the spring of 1837 the failures in New York and Nenr Orleans amounted to 
a hundred and fifty million dollars." — Ridpath. 

To aid the country (1) Ten million dollars in treasury notes were 
issued. (2) The Independent treasury bill was passed by which the na- 
tional funds were to be kept separately. In 1838 the banks resumed specie 
payments, still if required time to restore prosperity to the country. Near 
the close of 1837 a rebellion broke out in Canada. The movement receiv- 
ing private sympathy in the United States the President issued a proclama- 
tion of strict neutrality, forbidding further interference with the affairs of 



AMERICAN PHASE. 589 

Canada. Van Buren failed in his re-election, his administration suffering 
unjust blame. 

(9-10) Administrations of Harrison and Tyler — 1841-1845. Harrison 
began his administration with an able cabinet, Daniel Webster being Secre- 
tary of State. Being aged (sixty-eight years) he fell sick and died, one 
month from his inauguration. Mr. Tyler, Vice President, succeeded. 
Though a Whig, he was hostile to the United States bank. The adminis- 
tration of Tyler was troubled by a great variety of disturbing elements. 
(1) The repeal of the Independent Treasury bill ; (2) Bankrupt law; (3) 
Veto of the President of the re-charter of the United States bank ; (4) The 
Maine boundary question, between the United States and Great Britain ; 
(5) The domestic troubles of Rhode Island, in which two rival governments 
were formed ; (6) The Van Rensselaer difficulty in New York ; (7) The 
Mormon difficulties; (8) And the Texas war with Mexico. The last event 
resulting in the independence of Texas, followed by its request for mem- 
bership in the American Union, was made the national issue of the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1844. The Democratic party was in favor of annexa- 
tion, enlisting the Southern slave party in its favor, since Texas was situ- 
ated in the possible slave territory. The Whigs took the opposite ground, 
since they were exposed to the extension of slavery, and that annexation 
would involve the nation in a war with Mexico. The slave and war party 
was triumphant, and James K. Polk was elected over Henry Clay, the 
Whig candidate. 

One great invention marked the close of Tyler's administration. " On 
the 29th of May, 1844, the news of the nomination of Mr. Polk was sent 
from Baltimore to Washington by the ' Magnetic Telegraph.' Its in- 
ventor was Professor S. F. B. Morse, of Massachusetts. This invention 
marks the dawn of one of the most noted eras in the history of civiliza- 
tion. It forms a net-work of communication, spread over all the human 
family to bring them into one universal brotherhood. On the 29th of De- 
cember, 1844, Texas, the lone star, began to twinkle in the American 
heavens, the 27th State. 

(11) Polk's Administration — 1845-1849 — Mexican war. Texas having 
been a Mexican province, and her independence not having been acknowl- 
edged by the mother country, the annexation to the United States was a 
sufficient cause for war. The special issue between the countries was rela- 
tive to boundaries, Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western boundary, 
while Mexico held the Nueces as their limit. A bloody contest now com- 
menced. General Zachary Taylor achieved many brilliant victories over 
the Mexican armies. The march of General Scott, from Vera Cruz to the 
City of Mexico, and the conquest of that city and of the nation, were one of 
continued triumph. " On the second of February, 1848, a treaty was con- 
cluded between Mexico and the United States. The following are some of 
the conditions : The boundary line was the Rio Grande from its mouth to 
the southern limit of New Mexico ; thence westward along the southern, 
and northward along the western boundary of that territory to the Gila; 
thence down that river to l^jie Colorado ; thence westward to the Pacific. 



590 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

New Mexico and Upper California were relinquished to the United States. 
Mexico guaranteed the free navigation of the Gulf of California and the 
river Colorado. The United States agreed to surrender all places in Mexico, 
to pay that country fifteen million dollars, and to assume all debts due 
from the Mexican government to American citizens." — Rid/path. 

There was a great discovery a few days after the signing of the Mexican 
treaty, the finding of gold by Captain Sutter, in a mill-race, on the Ameri- 
can fork of the Sacramento River, California. It is remarkable that it 
should come to light so soon after the country came into the possession of 
the American Republic, after being so long hid from the Mexicans. A 
Divine hand is here. The news of the discovery, borne on the four winds 
of heaven, gave the intelligence to men of all races, who speedily gathered 
like eagles around a carcass. The discoveries were numerous and very 
rich. Some gold-hunters would, in a few days, colloct five hundred dollars 
in gold dust. No discovery could have equaled this in settling the Pacific 
Coast with such a conglomeration of all races. A few years accomplished 
for that country what otherwise might have taken centuries. The same 
may be said of all the western gold-producing territory. In 1848 Wiscon- 
sin, the last of the great States created out of the Northwestern Territory, 
was received into the Union as the 28th member. 

(12-13) Administration of Taylor and Fillmore— 1849-1853. The 
slavery question agitated the commencement of Taylor's administration. 
The proposition to admit California with her free constitution was vio- 
lently opposed by the slave interests of the South. Texas claimed New 
Mexico as part of her territory. The opponents of slavery demanded the 
abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. The South also 
complained that the North aided the fugitive slaves. Henry Clay, to 
secure peace, introduced his Omnibus Bill, having the following conditions : 
(1) Admission of California as a free State ; (2) The formation of new 
States (limited to four) out of Texas. To permit or exclude slavery as the 
people should determine; (3) The organization of territorial government 
for New Mexico and Utah without conditions as to slavery; (4) The estab- 
lishment of the present boundary between Texas and New Mexico; (5) 
The enactment of a stringent law for the recovery of fugitive slaves ; (6) 
The abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. 

In the midst of the discussion of this bill, President Taylor was re- 
moved by death (July 9, 1850) and Mr, Fillmore became president. In 
September Mr. Clay's compromise bill became a law. An efibrt was pri- 
vately made to annex Cuba which failed. In 1852 a diflSculty arose between 
the English and ^American fishermen on the coast of New Foundland, 
which, in 1854, was happily settled and the right to take fish in the bays of 
the British possessions was conceded to American fishermen. 

In the summer of 1852 Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian chief, visited 
America for aid in the cause of Hungarian liberty. Though enthusiastic- 
ally received, and the recipient of very distinguished honors, the American 
government deemed it inexpedient and improper to interfere in European 
politics, the European Phase of the Monroe doctrine : Let us alone and we 



AMERICAN PHASE. 591 

will let you alone. The Presidential campaign of 1852 had the compromise 
act of 1850 as the great issue between the Whigs and Democrats. The 
Democrats elected their candidate, Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. 

(14) Pierce's Administration— 1853-1857. In 1853 the Pacific Railroad 
scheme had its birth, though by many the scheme was considered im- 
practicable and visionary. In the same year the "Gadsden Purchase" was 
made of Mexico which settled the boundary between New Mexico and 
Chihuahua. During the same year intercourse between the United States 
and Japan commenced. On the 14th of July, the very day on which Com- 
modore Perry obtained an audience with the emperor of Japan, the Crystal 
Palace was opened in New York for the World's Fair, where specimens of 
the arts and manufactures of all nations were put on exhibition. The 
scheme had a new life for the Republic. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraske bill, 
a repeal of the Missouri Compromise, was brought forward by Mr. Douglas, 
of Illinois, and passed after a long debate. By this bill the people were to 
decide whether the new State should be free or slave-holding. A mass of 
people crowded into this territory to carry the approaching elections. In 
the elections of 1854-55 the pro-slavery party triumphed and civil war broke 
out between the factions in Kansas. The Kansas question was made the 
party issue of 1856. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, the Democratic 
candidate was elected President. The great crisis approached. 

(15) Buchanan's Administration — 1857-1861. In the first year of Bu- 
chanan's administration there was a serious trouble with the Mormons. It 
arose from an attempt to exercise national authority over Utah. An army 
of 2,500 men was sent to Utah in 1857 to establish courts and force obedi- 
ence. The Mormons resisted till the President offered pardon to all who 
would submit. Order was restored, but the troops remained till 1860. In 
1858 an American vessel while exploring the Paraguay river, in South 
America, was fired on by a garrison. The government of Paraguay was 
forced, by the American flag, to offer an apology for the insult. On the 
• 5th of August, 1858, the first Atlantic cable was completed. By this the 
Old World and the New were telegraphically connected. In 1856 Minne- 
sota (the 32d State) was added to the Union. In 1859 Oregon, the thirty- 
third State, was admitted. The slavery still continued to be the vexed 
question of the Nation. In 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States, 
after hearing the cause of Dred Scott, formerly a slave, decided that '' ne- 
groes are not, and cannot become, citizens." In several of the free States 
Personal Liberty bills were passed to defeat the Fugitive Slave law. In the 
fall of 1859 John Brown, of Kansas, with a company of 21 fearless men, 
captured the arsenal at Harper's Ferry and held his ground two days. By 
the national troops 13 of Brown's men were killed, two made their escape, 
and the remainder were taken, tried by the authorities of Virginia, con- 
demned and hanged. This raid and the results set the whole country in 
commotion. It was very evident that "The Irrepressible Conflict" had 
already commenced. In Kansas the Free Soil party was about to carry the 
State. In the Presidential contest of 1860 the candidate of the Republican 
party was Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. The distinct principle of the 



592 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

party was opposition to the extension of slavery. The Democratic party 
was divided, putting two candidates into the field — Douglas and Breckin- 
ridge. The American party chose John Bell, of Tennessee. There being 
four candidates, Lincoln was elected. Who that believed in Jehovah as a 
ruler and disposer of national events, can doubt the presence of that power 
in dividing the councils of the friends of American slavery ? Had they 
remained a unit slavery would still have continued its blight over the 
land. God's purpose, as the results show, was revealed in two particulars : 
(1) That the Nation should continue a unit, not two. It should be a great 
people ; (2) That the institution of slavery should no longer exist among 
that great people. The God of nations is not wanting in means to carry 
out His national purposes. He made use of the friends of the institution 
of American slavery to work its overthrow. He allowed them to carry 
slavery to extreme measures and then divided their councils, thus allowing 
its enemies to triumph. 

The Southern leaders declared that the election of Lincoln (it being 
sectional) was a sufficient cause for dissolving the Union. The time to 
commence the work of secession was, by Divine Providence, afforded them, 
viz. : between the election of Lincoln and his inauguration. President 
Bvichanan was not a disunionist ; but he declared himself not armed with 
the constitutional power to prevent secession by force. The first act of 
secession was by South Carolina. On the 17th of December, 1860, South 
Carolina, in her sovereign power and State majesty, resolved herself out of 
the Union in these words: " Resolved, That the Union hitherto existing be- 
tween South Carolina and the other States is dissolved." By the first of 
February, 1861, six other States — Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
Louisiana and Texas — had all passed ordinances of secession. Nearly all 
the Senators and Representatives of these States resigned their seats in 
Congress and gave themselves to the work of secession. On the 4th of Feb- 
ruary, 1861, a new government ("The Confederate States of America") was 
formed at Montgomery, Alabama, by the delegates of six of the seceded 
States and Jefferson Davis was chosen President, and Alexander H. 
Stephens, of Georgia, who had opposed the secession of his State as ''im- 
politic, unwise, disastrous," Vice-President. The Union seemed a total 
wreck. " The army was on remote frontiers — the fleet in distant seas. The 
President (Buchanan) was distracted. With the exception of Forts Sum- 
ter, Moultrie, Pickens and Monroe all the important posts in the seceded 
States had been seized by the Confederate authorities. Early in January 
the President sent the "Star of the West" to reinforce Fort Sumter. But 
the ship was fired on by a battery and driven away from Charleston. Thus 
in gloom and grief the administration of Buchanan drew to a close. Such 
was the alarming condition of affairs that it was deemed prudent for the 
new President to enter the capital by night." — Ridpath. 

On the 12th of March an effort was made by the seceded States to have 
their inde|)endence acknowledged by the Union ; but it was a failure. The 
first Confederate gun was fired against Fort Sumter (commanded by Major 
Robert Anderson with 79 men,) on the 12th of April, 1861. After the bom- 



AMERICAN PHASE. 593 

bardment of thirty-four hours the fort surrendered. The news of the 
attack and surrender, flying through the North, awakened a war spirit; 
and at the call of the President patriots flew to arms. The first call was 
for 75,000 volunteers to serve for three months. This call, reaching the 
South, was the subject of ridicule and contempt. The sequel proved how 
little the North, at that time, appreciated the power of the "Confederated" 
South. Two days after this call Virginia receded. On the 6th of May 
Arkansas followed and North Carolina on the 20th of May, Tennessee on 
the 8th of June. In Missouri the movement resulted in civil war. Ken- 
tucky became neutral and Maryland was split into factions. The first 
bloodshed of the war was that of three men of the Massachusetts volun- 
teers who were killed while passing through Baltimore. On the 3d of May 
the President issued a call for 83,000 soldiers to serve for three years or dur- 
ing the war. The magnitude of the work developed its immense proportions 
as the Rebellion progressed. It was soon apparent that the South was full 
of drilled soldiers and that they were fully resolved to succeed at any cost. 
Their armies at first were better drilled and superior to those of the North; 
and had they taken advantage of their first great victory at Manassas Junc- 
tion, they would have found the North but illy prepared to resist them. 
One of their own editors uttered a great truth, while insisting on an im- 
mediate advance on Washington : " Our soldiers are now superior to those 
of the North, being better drilled ; but as the war progresses the soldiers of 
the North, being drilled to severe labor, will become superior to ours." 

It is not our purpose to narrate the events of the war, since they are 
familiar; but simply to give the causes of the struggle and to sketch some 
events which show the growth and strength of the American Union. 

(1) The causes as given by historians are as follows : ( 1) The different con- 
struction put upon the Constitution by the people of the North and the South. 
One party held that the Union of the States is indissoluble, and that the 
States are subordinate to the Central government; the other party held that 
the national Constitution is a compact between sovereign States; that for cer- 
tain reasons the Union may be dissolved; that the sovereignty of the nation 
belongs to the individual States ; that a State may annul any act of Congress ; 
that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to his own State ; and that 
nullification and disunion are justifiable and honorable. The people of 
New England at first advocated State sovereignty, then went over to 
national sovereignty while the South went over to State sovereignty. 

(2) The second cause of the civil war was the different systems of labor 
in the North and in the South. In the former section the laborers were 
freemen, in the latter slaves. The theory of labor in the South was that 
capital should own labor ; in the North that both labor and capital should 
be free. There were slaves at first in all the States ; it was then excluded 
from the North and Northwest. 

(3) There were subordinate causes of the war. The invention of the 
" Cotton Gin " made cotton, and consequently slave labor vastly more valu- 
able. The slave institution was^ therefore, a much more important mstitu- 

38 



594 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

tion. The Missouri agitation of 1820-21 and nullification acts of South 
Carolina hastened the bloody crisis. 

(4) The annexation of Texas increased the slave territory excitement 
by creating a strife between the free and slave parties as to which should 
rule the affairs of the nation. The Kansas-Nebraska bill opened the ques- 
tion anew. In population and wealth the North had outgrown the South. 

(5) The third general cause of war was the want of intercourse be- 
tween the people of the North and South. Railroads ran principally east 
and west. Emigration flowed in the same direction. Between the North 
and South there was too little travel for interchange of views and to pre- 
vent jealousy. Their manners and customs were very widely different. 

(6) A fourth cause was the publication of sectional books, exciting the 
animosity existing between the South and the North. 

(7) A growing opinion in the North that the institution of slavery was 
wrong in itself. We think that all these causes can be traced to the insti- 
tution of slavery itself. God had designed this country to be the home of 
" One Great Free People." With slavery existing in one part and hated 
by another, two nationalities of the one new race, would of necessity exist. 
To preserve Liberty and Unity slavery had to terminate and that by its 
own agency. 

(16-17) Administrations of Lincoln and Johnson 1861-1869 — 8 years. 
Lincoln's first term was occupied by the war of the Rebellion. He lived in 
his second term long enough to witness the fall of Richmond and the col- 
lapse of the Confederacy. With its sun his own went down. His name 
will be known in future history as the Savior of his country's Liberty and 
Unity. The events of his administration are so familiar to the people and 
to the world that their record will not be necessary in our present work. 

This violent, bloody and protracted effort to sever the God-purposed 
unity by making two hostile nations out of " One Great People," teaches 
this lesson : " What God hath joined together no human agency, however 
great, can put asunder." The North and the South, worshipers of the same 
God ; members of the same denominations, claimed the same Deity as the 
God of their armies, yet slavery was extinguished and the Union restored. 
We cannot fail to see the hand of Jehovah in this movement. Of the two 
classes of petitioners God favored that people whose plans were more in 
unison with His own national purpose. 

Johnson's administration was confined to Lincoln's unfinished term. 
His position was one of great perplexity. Coming into the seat of one of such 
extraordinary powers as were possessed by Mr. Lincoln, who had suddenly 
fallen by the hand of an assassin, it was natural that he should be sub- 
jected to much censure. On the 1st of February, 1865, by an amendment 
to the Constitution, slavery was abolished from the Union. By the 18th of 
the following December it had been ratified by the Legislatures of 27 States 
and was duly proclaimed as part of the Constitution. The emancipation 
proclamation had been issued as a military necessity. On the 29th of May 
the President issued the " Amnesty Proclamation," which extended pardon 
to all classes of persons that had taken part in the Confederacy, a few only 



AMERICAN PHASE. 595 

being excepted. The armies were disbanded and victors and vanquished re- 
turned to their homes of peaceful occupations. 

The war debt was immense, the interest of which, in 1866, had in- 
creased to $133,000,000 in gold, and the entire expenses of the government 
was $200,000,000, but the revenues of the nation proved ample and the 
debt began to decrease. During the war a French empire was established 
in Mexico by Napoleon III. The United States rebuked France and the 
empire soon expired. 

Kansas entered the Union January 24th, 1861. On the 1st of March, 
1867, Nebraska was admitted into the Union as the 37th State. In 1867 
was the purchase of Alaska, 580,000 square miles, of Russia for $7,200,000. 
Coast fisheries, white pine and yellow cedar were of immense value. John- 
son, for abuse of the executive power, in dismissing Secretary Stanton, 
without consent of the Senate, was summoned before the Senate for trial, 
but he was acquitted. 

(18) Grant's Administration— 1869-1877— 8 years. The first act of the 
new Administration was the completion of the Pacific Railroad on the 10th 
of May, 1869 ; it extended from Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, 1914 
miles. Before the inauguration of President Grant, the 14th and 15th amend- 
ments to the Constitution were passed ; the 14th extended the right of citi- 
zenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and it de- 
clared the validity of the public debt ; and the 15th provided that the right 
of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color 
or previous condition of servitude. In the first three months the work of 
reorganizing the Southern States was completed. In 1870 the population 
of the United States was 38,587,000 persons. The last ten years, notwith- 
standing the terrible war, had been a decade of growth and progress. The 
national debt was rapidly falling off. The products of the United States 
had grown to vast aggregate. American manufacturers were competing 
with those of England in the markets of the world. The Union now em- 
braced thirty-seven States and eleven Territories. The national domain 
had spread to the vast area of three million six hundred and four thousand 
square miles. Few things have been more wonderful than the territorial 
growth of the United States." — Ridpath. 

The proposal to annex San Domingo to the United States failed. The 
claims of the United States against Great Britain for damages done to com- 
merce, by Confederate cruisers, were awarded by a commission, they being 
fifteen and a half million dollars. In 1871 Chicago was burned, the area 
being three and a half square miles, 200 lives being lost and $200,000,000 of 
property consumed. On the 9th November, 1872, the Boston fire com- 
menced and burned to the 11th. The burnt district, containing some of 
the finest business blocks in the Union, covered sixty-five acres; 800 build- 
ings and property to the value of $80,000,000 were consumed. The war of 
the Modoc Indians, in which Gen. Canby and Dr. Thomas were murdered, 
took place in 1873. In the autumn of the same year commenced one of the 
severest and most disastrous financial panics ever known in the United 
States. The Centennial of American Independence was celebrated at Phila- 



596 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

delphia in 1876. In the last year of Grant's administration was the war 
with the Sioux, in Southwest Dakota. This war was severe. Gen. Custer 
and every man of his command perished. The Indians were defeated in 
many battles; and finally the remnant under Sitting Bull and Crazy 
Horse were driven into Canada. On the 1st of July, 1876, Colorado came 
into the Union as the 38th State. 

(19) Hayes's Administration — 1877-1881. For the first time in the his- 
tory of the country there was a disputed presidency. A Joint High Com- 
mission, consisting of five members chosen from the United States Senate, 
five from the House of Representatives, and five from the Supreme Court 
declared the Republican candidate elected. Hayes's administration was one 
of equal justice (as far as practicable) to the North and South. We may 
say that it was a temperate, careful and prudent administration. Mr. 
Hayes began civil service reform. The great railroad strike was in the 
summer of 1877, and was protracted and disastrous. In the Spring of 1877 
a war broke out with the Nee Perce Indians of Idaho. They were finally 
surrounded in their camp north of the Bear Paw Mountains and mostly de- 
stroyed or taken prisoners. 

(20-21) Administration of Garfield and Arthur — 1881-1885. The 
assassination of Garfield near the commencement of his official term 
threw the nation into sadness and gloom. His protracted sufferings made 
him, for a time, the world's idol. He was shot July 2d, 1881, and expired 
September 19th, 1881. President Arthur succeeded. Of Arthur's adminis- 
tration no special notice is required. It was a term of peace and general 
prosperity. He administered the government in such a manner as not to 
excite the hatred of either great party. It may be called a term of growth 
and general prosperity. 

(22) Cleveland's Administration — 1885-1889. With the commence- 
ment of Cleveland's administration we close our sketch of the History of 
the United States. Its growth has been wonderful. In 1783 the United 
States had an area of only 820,680 square miles. It now has 3,603,844 
square miles, and with its waters over 4,000,000 square miles. From 13 
States it has increased to 38, which are as follows : Six Eastern or New 
England States — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut. Four Middle — Ncav York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware. Eleven Southern — Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Texas. Seventeen Western — Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Cali- 
fornia, Oregon, Nebraska, Nevada, Colorado. The eight organized territories, 
governed by the Federal Congress, with governors and judiciary appointed 
by the President of the United States, but having a local legislature and 
sending delegates without vote to Congress, are New Mexico, Utah, Washing- 
ton, Dakota, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. There is also the Indian 
territory, a reserve for Indian tribes — removed from the east of the Missis- 
sippi river — governed by Indians under the protection of the United States-; 
the District of Columbia (60 square miles) ceded by Maryland, including 



AMERICAN PHASE. 597 

Washington, the Federal Capital, governed by Congress, and Alaska, under 
military rule. The Indians are about 320,000. 

No country has been peopled by such a variety of races. New England 
was settled by the English Puritans and a few Scotch and Welsh; New 
York by Dutch ; Pennsylvania and New Jersey by Quakers, Dutch, Swedes 
and Germans; Maryland by English Roman Catholics; Delaware by Dutch 
and Swedes; the Carolinas in part by Huguenots; Louisiana by French; 
Florida, Texas and California by Spanish ; Utah by Mormons, chiefly from 
England, Wales and Denmark. Immigration from England, Ireland, Scot- 
land, Germany, France, Switzerland and Sweden has been large and pro- 
gressive. In the year ending June 30, 1875, the total number of immigrants 
that arrived in the United States was 227,377. Of these there came from 
Great Britain and Ireland, 83,362; Germany, 47,760; China, 16,433. From 
1815 to 1874 the emigration from Great Britain and Ireland to the United 
States was 4,905,262. The German and Irish and their descendants in the 
United States probably form one-third of the entire population. — Library of 
Universal Knowledge. 

We have traced an outline history of the American Republic under its 
twenty-one Presidential administrations; sketched them as they existed in 
the form of thirteen British colonies : Followed them as they gathered into 
colonies from the Old World, and have followed them from their European 
nationalities. Can we trace the family elements of this great American 
people into an Asiatic home ? If so, what people and where was their 
most distant Eastern land ? These are propositions we are now prepared 
briefly to discuss. In doing this we shall for the present assume what 
should never be questioned. 

(1) That Jehovah is as truly the Supreme Ruler and Disposer of Mod- 
ern Nations as He was of ancient empires, such as Egypt, Assyria, Medes 
and Persian, Grecians and Romans. (2) That He has ever had His plans 
relative to the nations which demonstrate a Unity of National purpose; 
(3) That His planting and control of modern nations is only a further de- 
velopment of that national purpose which is distinctly delineated in Bible 
times, as narrated in the historical parts of the Old Testament ; (4) That 
the discovery and peopling of America is simply the crowning act of God's 
great national purpose — a unity of action demonstrating a Divine unity of 
purpose; (5) That in all these great national movements Jehovah has ex- 
hibited a partiality for a particular family; (6) That He has acted toward 
this family with parental affection and hath arranged the affairs of other 
nations relative to the conduct and position of this one special family, sub- 
ordinating their destiny to the destiny of the favored race, making said 
nations pupils and servants of the distinguished family; (7) That His 
modern national arrangements form no exception to His purposes revealed 
to his Divinely inspired prophets, but are the carrying forward and perfect- 
ing of His plans by which His great national scheme is to be accomplished ; 
(8) That in tracing the governing dynasties of modern times, we have 
traced the origin and mission of the great nations of the Old World, such 
as Egypt, the British empire, the Russian empire, the Ottoman empire and 



598 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

the Hebrew race ; it is now proposed, by the aid of these demonstrated pro- 
positions, to solve the American problem as to its discovery, its being peo- 
pled by all races and God's plan in planting and developing such a mighty 
Republic; what bearing it has on the solution of the Eastern question; (9) 
That history studied without regard to the discovery of the Divine hand 
in alj great national movements and His purpose in national developments 
is a vain and useless study ; (10) That in all our investigations of national 
history certain questions should be mentally propounded. Why was the 
country discovered at such a time and peopled by such a race ? Why was 
such a nation prospered into universal empire? (11) Is there a unity of 
purpose in the movements ? (12) Does that purpose develop a great scheme 
of universal empire? With these cardinal thoughts before us let us inves- 
tigate God's purpose in the discovery of America and in developing upon 
its most valuable territory a mighty Republic. God has a purpose, a com- 
mission work for the American Republic, and that purpose is contained in 
the inspired record of prophecy. What is that purpose? What position 
does it occupy in God's plan of universal empire ? What evidence of such 
a plan in the history of the Republic itself? What confirmation of this 
plan do we find in the history of other families ? What information do we 
obtain from prophetic history ? These questions with others we propose to 
discuss that we may learn whether national domination is under the con- 
trol of human passion, guided simply by chance and human pluck, or that 
national developments are under the government of one supreme will that 
is shaping all things according to His own immutable purpose? 

The American Phase as to its located and dominant family has been 
concisely stated. A few concluding thoughts will now be in place. On 
the Eden of America, stands to-day, the Great American Republic in the 
morning vestments of its second century ; the latter day experiment ; the 
world's western pride and wonder. Its field of active enterprise, now em- 
bracing nearly four million sq. miles. A Republic, fashioned after no pat- 
tern, either ancient or modern ; purely American, yet developed from 
colonial elements, taking, in part, the likeness in laws, manners, and cus- 
toms, and also in religion, and in tribal or state divisions of ancient Israel. 
Whether the offspring of that people (the house of Jacob) will appear on 
further investigation. Who is the American of this unique Republic? Of 
what race ? Whose tribal blood flows along his veins ? Is he a pure Cau- 
casian, Mongolian, Malayan, African, or Indian ? or is his vital blood, a 
mixture, of the elements, which go to form the distinctive features of all 
races — the blood of the human family in all its varieties. We speak of the 
native American, the home-born citizen of the model Republic. Here all 
people congregate to contribute their quota of vitality to the formation of 
a NEW MAN. If the human family could be divided into five races before 
the rise of this western empire, since that time we have six races ; since 
every native citizen of this great American Republic is, by birth, a true 
cosmopolite, an admixture of the blood of all races. This position will 
readily be conceded. 

While this is strictly true of the representative American, since his 



AMERICAN PHASE. 599 

physical structure is a conglomeration of all races, of Asia, Africa, Europe, 
as well as the isles of the sea, yet the elements of some one of these families 
must be so dominant, as justly to entitle this new man, this cosmopolitan, 
to some specific cognomen. What is that name ? It is not Indian, nor 
African (Negro) ; neither is it Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Mede, Grecian, 
Roman, Chinese, Tartar, Russian, Turk, Italian, Pole, Hungarian, Aus- 
trian, Norwegian, Swede, Dane, German, French, Portuguese, Irish, Welsh, 
Scotch, or Spanish, though the blood of all these families flow more or less 
abundantly in its veins? What then shall we call the new man, the royal 
youth of the new world ? Till a more appropriate name can be found we 
shall call it American Anglo-Saxon. To call it simply Anglo-Saxon 
would not express its full character, since, it being American born, it has in 
its make the admixture of blood, peculiar to America. It is, therefore, 
American, and has been educated in its peculiar institutions, civil, social, 
and ecclesiastical ; still its predominant eastern blood is Anglo-Saxon. 
This will fully appear from the history already given. Of what nationali- 
ties were the colonies? The Puritans were from England. Hence, the land 
they settled is called New England. They used the English language, laws, 
manners, and held to that religion ; so that they can truly claim England 
as their mother country. Other families early sent their representatives 
to the New World. Settlements of Dutch, German, Swedes, French and 
Spanish were planted in the wilds of America ; these were designed by 
the Deity to give new attributes to this wonderful organism, and to tem- 
per and modify those already given. Thus were the physical, social, moral, 
and religious attributes of the native American very materially changed 
from those of the eastern Anglo-Saxon. While it is true that all races have 
some representative element in the Native American, it is also true that no 
one but the Anglo-Saxon entitles it to the name. It would sound quite 
incongruous to call this new western representative man a Dutchman, a 
German, Frenchman, a Spaniard, Austrian, Russian, Pole, Negro, or by the 
name of any other family, a sprinkle of whose vital fluid courses through 
his veins ; yet the mixture gives to the new man new traits of character 
possessed by none of the five races. These peculiarities make him, as to 
family traits, unique. The pure Anglo-Saxon of the Old World is im- 
proved (if we are allowed the expression) in the New World by these 
family admixtures. 

Much is written of the half-breeds of the Northwest — the children of 
English, Scotch and French fathers and Indian mothers. Between the 
Scotch and French half-breeds there is a remarkable contrast, owing espe- 
cially to the difference of their domestic training. The Scotchman, when 
about to marry an Indian, gives her to understand that he is to be the 
governor in every particular ; that the children must be brought up to suit 
his views The children are, therefore, Scotch in their manners and modes 
of thought. The Frenchman marries an equal ; and, therefore, allows his 
wife to manage the offspring. These children are, in their modes of 
thought, occupation and manners, Indians. The Scotch till the soil and 
cultivate the elements of civilization, while the French half-breeds are In- 



600 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

dian hunters, and trappers, and warriors. In the one the Scottish identity 
predominates ; in the other the Indian. 

This principle holds good with the typical American, only in a 
vastly greater variety of particulars. All races inter-marry in America — 
all the European families ; also the African and the Asiatic races. Here 
will be a mingling, and, at first, imperfect fusion of national traits. Even 
the inferior races impart, occasionally, superior traits of character. The 
Anglo-Saxon blood is het by one race ; made active by another ; more in- 
dustrious and persevering by a third ; and so on to the end of the family 
admixtures. Still the Anglo-Saxon blood predominates, and the Native 
American is, by right, in his birth, language, education, and in his political, 
social, and religious ideas, an American Anglo-Saxon. 

In our historic sketch we have given sufficient data for the reader to 
decide how far the pure Anglo-Saxon character is changed in his western 
home. In some parts of the country Puritan manners have always been 
predominant ; in others Dutch ; in others French, while in other colonies 
Danes, Swedes, and Spaniards, in numbers, at least, seem to have the 
ascendency. As to language, laws, and government, the Anglo-Saxon is at 
the helm. 

The Republic, therefore, is American Anglo-Saxon, since it is adapted 
to the new order of things. This is especially true of its laws, language, re- 
ligion, manners, customs, and its various institutions. The Anglo-Saxon 
becomes Americanized fully, in his posterity, and himself partly so by his 
residence in his new western home. All other families are subordinated to 
this dominant Saxon influence. That the dynasties or families that have 
held the chief power in this model Republic have been principally Anglo- 
Saxon will appear from the examination of the nationalities of our 22 
presidents. 

(1) George Washington wa.s born in Virginia; son of Augustine Wash- 
ington ; a descendant of John Washington, who emigrated from England 
to Virginia about 1657. He was, therefore, an American Anglo-Saxon. 
(2) John Adams was born at Braintree, in Massachusetts, on the 19th of Oct., 
1735. His parents were descended from a Puritan family, which had emi- 
grated from England to Massachusetts in 1640. (3) T. Jefferson^ s father was 
a Virginia planter, and of English stock. He and Mr. Adams were both 
American Anglo-Saxon. (4) J. Madison was born at King George, Va., 
March 16, 1751. His father, James Madison, of Orange, was of English 
ancestry, and, therefore, an American Anglo-Saxon. (5) James Monroe was 
born in Westmoreland Co., Va., April 28, 1758. He was descended from a 
Captain Monroe, of the army of Charles I., who emigrated, with other 
cavaliers, to Virginia. He was an American Anglo-Saxon. (6) •/. Q. Adams, 
son of John Adams, the second President, was, therefore, an American 
Anglo-Saxon. (7> Andrew Jackson was born at Waxhaw Settlement, S. C, 
March 15, 1767. His father, who was a Scotchman by birth, emigrated to 
America in 1765. He was, therefore, an American Scotchman, or a Kelt, as 
some would conclude ; but, being from the low-lands of Scotland, he be- 
longed to the second Gothic, Scythian, or German emigration, in which was 



AMERICAN PHASE. 601 

the Saxon family. He was, therefore, an American Anglo-Saxon removed 
to the second degree. (8) Martin Van Buren was born at Kinderhook, New 
York. He was of German extract, belonging to the second emigration, and 
Saxon in the original stock, yet possessing the German element, (9) Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison was born in Virginia, was of Anglo-Saxon parent- 
age, and, therefore, American Anglo-Saxon. (10) John Tyler was born in 
Charles City Co., Va., May 29, 1790, of English extract. (11) James K. Polk 
was born in Mecklenburg Co., N. C, Nov. 2, 1795. His ancestors, who bore 
the name of Pollock, emigrated from the n. of Ireland early in the 18th 
century. (12) Z. Taylor was born in Orange Co., Va., Nov. 24, 1784, of 
English extract. — American Anglo-Saxon. (13) Millard Fillmore was born 
Jan. 7th, 1800, at Summer Hill, New York, of English parents, — American 
Anglo-Saxon. (14) Franklin Pierce was born in Hillsborough, N. H., Nov. 
23, 1804, of Puritan parentage. (15) James Buchanan was born in Franklin 
Co., Pa., April 13, 1791. Irish father and English mother. (16) Abraham 
Lincoln, born in Hardin Co., Ky., Feb. 12, 1809. His family was of English 
descent, — American Anglo-Saxon. (17) Andrew Johnson was born at Raleigh, 
N. C, Dec. 29, 1808, of English extract. (18) U. S. Grant was born at Point 
Pleasant, Clermont Co., Ohio, April 27, 1822, of Scotch ancestry. (19) 
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, Oct. 4, 1822, of 
Scotch ancestry. Scottish chieftain of noble blood, by Bruce. From Scot- 
land to Windsor, Connecticut, 1680 ; then to Vermont ; then to Ohio. (20) 
James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga Co. Ohio, Nov. 19, 1831, of English 
extract. (21) Chester Arthur was born in Vermont, of Scottish parents, 
who were of the old English stock. His father was a Baptist minister, came 
to Vermont, then to New York. 



SUMMARY. 



"We have given a somewhat lengthy sketch of the six nations most 
intimately connected with the great movements towards the Orient ; have 
followed their original acts as they increased from families into tribal 
life ; thence into a higher and more powerful national being, and have 
noted the adaptation of their lands and training to their special mis- 
sions. We have also followed them into the future by the light of God's 
lamp, in the hands of the holy seers. 

Such a history was necessary to comprehend fully the nature of that 
contest now commencing in a final struggle between the family of the Ser- 
pent and that of Jesus, the Messiah, which have been skirmishing since the 
gates of Paradise shut them out from the Divine presence. God purposes 
to restore the Earth from the ruins of the first Adam by the triumphs of 
the last Adam. He purposes to gather out of the family of the first Adam, 
a people, who, under Messiah, shall occupy and inherit the Earth, in its re- 
novated form, under an endless reign of righteousness and peace. The 
training of the human family for that noted era has been described, and 
the special work of each nation has been carefully traced and concisely 
presented. It now remains that we give a brief summary of those events 
and bring our work to a conclusion by introducing the reader to the 7th, or 
Messianic Phase of the Eastern Question. For, in brief, the Doings of the 
human family since the Flood, and God's immutable purpose in those 
works form the theme of our work. Human works, and God's purpose in 
those works. 

Man has been, and will be, the subject of two great movements, the 
one outward from an original centre; the other inward toward a predestined 
centre. The forces urging him from and to those centres in Natural Philos- 
ophy are denominated Centrifugal and Centripetal. The terms are equally 
appropriate in the philosophy of Divine things, since the same Almighty 
being has originated and equally controls each department. These forces, 
when applied to the movements of the human family, may be termed the 
Colonization and Restitution Schemes. The former movement is 
peculiar to the family of the first Adam ; the latter to that of the last 
Adam. The first Adam was destined to multiply the human race ; thereby 
filling the Earth with families, tribes, and nations preparatory to a future 
reign, the latter to establish that kingdom under Messiah, the last Adam, 
over a selected holy people. God has outlined the colonization scheme in 
His revelations to Noah, Gen. ix. and x. Passing by any definite history of 
the masses of the human race, only in a relative sense, the Divine narrative 
traces the history of that one son of Shem from whom Messiah was to de- 
(602) 



SUMMARY. 603 

scend. That line was Eber, the progenetor of the Hebrew fathers, Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), and from Israel came Judah and Joseph ; 
and from Judah, the Messiah; the Savior ; and from Joseph, Ephraim and 
Manasseh, who were to fill the earth with their nationalities. The pre- 
dicted histories of Judah and Joseph form chapters in the Divine record ; 
the literal narratives of which are in Gen. ix., x. and xii. 5; Deut. xxxii. 
8-15; Acts xvii. ; Ps. ii. and x. ; and their symbolic record in Eze. xxxvii. ; 
Dan. ii., vii., viii., xii. ; Rev. xi. 15. Also Zech. i. To these we refer the 
reader, reserving special notice for the seventh, or Messianic Phase of the 
Eastern Question. We shall simply present a summary of the chief events 
in our sketches of the six national families involved especially in the East- 
ern Question. 

(1) Egypt was the first of those six noted families, whose territory 
has so many foot-prints of the Deity, whose delta was the cradle of infant 
Israel; the land of Ham, on whose soil Jehovah did so many wonders in 
delivering His chosen people from unmitigated bondage. We sketched the 
valley in its primitive formation ; showed the land as the granary of the 
Eastern world, in times of great famines. We traced it through its event- 
ful history; noting its peculiar local advantages; its proficiency in the arts 
and sciences; its furnishing a home for Abraham, when driven by famine 
from the land of promise; — and for the Hebrew family of Israel, till it ex- 
panded into a powerful nation ; — noted their agriculture, and their national 
idolatry ; walked around and through its stupendous monuments ; viewed 
the great pyramid, the wonder of all ages, the text-book of science, and key 
of sacred history ; the home (the land of Goshen) that Jehovah formed in 
the sea, by wafting materials from the great unknown of Africa, down the 
branches of the Nile and sinking them beneath the sea, till they arose a 
solid land, thus making a private dwelling-place for His own beloved family. 
Here was the seminary ; also the workshop of His infant nation, where 
they received their first rudiments of high culture. In that land they were 
trained as a nation to overcome the Canaanites, and hold, while obedient, to 
the land of promise. We sketched the history of Egypt in her prosperity, 
while Jehovah was rearing His infant family, in the land of Goshen, and 
increasing and expanding it into a nation ; also Egypt under adversity, 
while oppressing God's chosen people 215 years, till that nation was judged 
and the sentence executed in the ten judgment plagues, and by the over- 
whelming of Pharoah and all hosts in the floods of the Red Sea. 

When God had accomplished His object in Egypt properly, it was left 
to its own pride to work its own ruin. 

The fulfillment of the predictions recorded in Ezekiel xxix. constitutes 
the history of Egypt for the last twenty-two centuries. That prophetic 
history we have aimed to follow, especially in demonstrating its agreement 
in these two particulars : (a) That it should become a base (low) kingdom ; 
(b) that no native prince should henceforth rule over Egypt. Jehovah's 
people were placed under its hospitality. The God of that nation was the 
High Father of Egypt. Instead of recognizing the brotherhood, they re- 
duce them to servitude. For that act, and for the sin of dark ingratitude, 



604 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

their sore judgments follow, and their pride and are shrouded in the dust 
of humiliation. 

Egypt soon became subject to Babylon ; it being given by Jehovah to 
Nebuchadnezzar for his hire in the subjugation of Tyre. On the fall of 
Babylon, Egypt fell into the hands of the Persians. After the subversion 
of the Persian despotism, it came under the popular rule of Alexander, the 
Macedonian. After him, came his successors, who, under the dynasty of 
the twelve successive Ptolemies, held it for some centuries, when it fell 
to the dominion of the Romans. 

After some generations of Roman domination, it became a province of 
the mighty Saracenic empire. After their rule terminated, Egypt fell into 
the hands of the Mamelukes (slave usurpers) ; and after these slave rulers, 
it became a conquered element of the Ottoman empire, a province governed 
by a Turkish Bashaw and 24 Begs, or Chiefs, advanced from among 
the slaves to the administration of public affairs; the Egyptians having a 
superstitious notion that fate had decreed that slaves must always rule, and 
the natives be in subjection. "Surely," says the late editor of the Calmet, 
*'the country belorded by slaves, may be justly considered as the 'basest of 
kingdoms.' " 

The Emperor Napoleon made every effort to raise Egypt to an honorable 
position among the nations, but signally failed. No human power alone 
can free her from the sentence of the Almighty ; yet Jehovah Himself has 
had and still has a mission for Egypt — the land rather than the native 
population. In that land, the product of the direct agency of the Deity, 
is an ancient stone monument, a pillar of witness ; an altar to the Lord, 
for a sign and a witness ; a monument of science and wisdom ; the world's 
instructor of Egypt's future, and of the character, proximity, and peculiar 
glory of the Coming age and Messiah's reign. 

Since Egypt has fallen more or less, under the influence and control of 
the great European powers, this peculiar valley, this land of the Pharoah's, 
and of Israel's early bondage, is beginning to evolve the elements of a new 
and higher life, and the day-dawn of her coming glory gilds the Orient. 

That prophecy which especially concerns us, as associating Egypt in a 
peculiar manner with the true Eastern Question, is found in Isaiah xix. 
23-25., which will be noticed under the Messianic Phase. This predicted 
prosperity belongs to no part of Egypt's past history, as we have already 
shown in our historic sketch of the Egyptian Phase of the Eastern Question. 
With this hasty summary we dismiss Egypt to enter upon the summary of 
the Second Phase — The British Empire. So intimately associated, prophetic- 
ally, are Egypt and the British Empire in the great Eastern movements, 
that we have placed this Prince of human domination in a position im- 
mediately following it, as perhaps its successor in the world's southern in- 
terests ("King of the South"). 

(2) Great Britain is the empire kingdom of modern times. By the 
vastness of its territory, the number and wealth of its colonies, the mag- 
nitude of its navy, and countless merchantmen, whose sails kiss the breezes 
of every ocean, sea, bay, and gulf. By its enlightened and wise government, 



SUMMARY. 605 

its equitable laws, and high moral worth ; by all the elements that form 
the character of a mighty nation, the British Empire is peerless. That 
empire is, however, too young to have its name in the Scriptures of divine 
truth. The British Empire is composed principally of an ancient people, 
ruled by ancient laws, but called by a new name. Its agency may be seen 
and read in the writings of the ancient seers. The ruling family of the 
British Empire takes the name of "Anglo-Saxon;" in more ancient times 
"Saxon." The Saxon family has been demonstrated to be Asiatic in its 
origin. It entered into the British Isles (islands of the sea) from Europe; 
entering Europe first from southern Asia. Whence they had been taken, 
was distinctly proven, viz., from southwestern Asia. The Saxon was a 
member of the Gothic family; entered Europe m the second great emigra- 
tion from the East, and dwelt in Germany; being variously called Gothic, 
German, and Scythian, — God's people, North men or wanderers. They left 
Asia for the great western unknown, about the eighth century before Christ. 
We traced the Saxon into Media and Persia, thence back into southwes|,ern 
Asia, finding them neither Medes nor Persians. They were followed South 
west to the land of Israel, and identified to be the seed (sons) of Isaac. 
Sax-son — sons of Isaac. " For in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Gen. xxi, 
12. ; Rom. ix. 7. 8. ; Heb. xi. 18. We gave what is supposed to be the origin 
of the word Saxon, from Sharon Turner, the English historian. The 
Saxon (Son of Isaac) is, therefore, of the family of Abraham, heir of the 
promise, and the father of many nations. The Saxons, consequently, are 
through Isaac and Jacob, of the family that received the original promise ; 
they being of the ten tribes that were carried from the land of Israel into 
Media, and afterwards wandered westward under various names, Saxons 
(sons of Isaac), Scythians (Wanderers), Goth (God's people), and Germans 
(North-men, descending from the North to attack the Roman empire). 
Hence it would seem that the British nation and the lost ten tribes are 
identical, but under a new name, Saxon. But, uniting with the Angles, 
they assumed the compound name, "Anglo-Saxon." 

Their identity being established, their Bible history may be readily 
found in "Kings and Chronicles." Here we also learn their future; but 
more especially in the prediction of the prophets. Their mission towards 
the Jews (Judah and Benjamin) in aiding their return, is readily traced in 
the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, and Zechariah. 
The British nation was also identified as "King of the South." 

As a national element in the great Eastern movements and in the 
Restitution schemes, and in the universal and endless reign of Messiah, 
England occupies the first and the most responsible position. 

(3) Russian Phase. — That empire whose destinies are especially inter- 
woven with the various phases of the Eastern Question, is the Russian. 
We traced that empire (a) through its tribal elements, recognizing in that 
power from its origin in central and Eastern Asia, as well as in the icy 
north, the ancient enemy of Jehovah, the Gog of Ezekiel. Following the 
Russians into northern Europe, we see them at the head of the Slavonian 
race, in the third great western emigration. They established the European 



606 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Seminary of the North and prepared material to carry out its northern 
mission. 

The Russian Empire has been under the despotic rule of two dynasties 
or governing families of North-men of the Scythian, Gothic, or German 
race. The first (who was the father of the Russian Empire) was Rurik, 
succeeded by a branch of the same house, called Romanoff, now the reigning 
dynasty. We followed that empire in its rapid growth and expansion over 
northeastern Europe and over the northern and middle Asia, till it became, 
in prophetic language, "King of the North," and the noted enemy of God, 
and of His family — the Hebrews. We described its persevering efforts to 
get possession of Constantinople, thereby expelling the Turk from his 
European possessions ; and also its many remarkable failures in that enter- 
prize (1) by the inherent strength of the Ottoman Empire in its youth; (2) 
by the western European combination to preserve the balance of power. 
We noticed its recent efforts at acquiring territory, both in Europe and in 
Asia, and the plans to execute the conditions of the will of Peter the Great. 
We traced the empire into the future ; established its identity with the Gog 
of Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix. ; traced its march eastward through Middle 
and southeastern Asia, as it marched up to the throne of God's executive 
judgment, in the land and on the mountains of Israel. 

(4) The Ottoman Phase. — This we term the Middle Empire, as it 
stands like a wall between the Eastern track and Indian Empire of Great 
Britain, on the South and South East and the Eastern highway of the 
Russian Empire on its aggressive movements towards the East and South. 
It separates the Lion and the Bear and puts into the more distant future 
their deadly conflict. 

Of this empire we have written quite extensively ; describing it in its 
origin ; traced it through its various dynasties, and nomadic movements 
from Eastern and Central Asia, South and West, till it finally plants itself 
in Constantinople upon the ruins of the "latter" Greek Empire. We 
traced that empire through every stage of its official life, as Custodian of 
the middle gate to the Orient, and noted its many conflicts with the Russian 
while attempting to dispossess it of its lovely European home. 

We described many remarkable providences; especially the increase of 
British power, as its inherent strength decreased; its protectorate being 
designed in the providence of God to defend this Middle Empire from 
northern encroachments. We noticed, also, the protection of the Ottoman 
Empire by the jealousies of Western Europe. Under these national policies, 
Turkey is sustained, and Russia is confined, principally to the North. The 
official mission has not yet expired ; for, no other nation will be allowed to 
execute its office for reasons quite apparent. Should Constantinople be 
taken, it would fall under Russian power, and Anatolia and Palestine would 
become provinces of the great northern empire. Such a result would be 
disastrous to Jewish colonization and their future nationality. The future 
of the Ottoman Empire and its fate, will be that of the false prophet of the 
Apocalypse, the drying up. of the Euphrates is quite another event. 

(5) Hebrew Phase — Summary. — In our sketches of the national 



SUMMARY. 607 

phases of the Eastern Question, we have given the Hebrew family the fifth 
rank, not because of any want of intrinsic merit in its cause, but for the reason, 
that the history of the surrounding Gentile families is quite necessary to a 
clear and proper understanding of this t'he most complicated, in its solu- 
tion, of all the national problems involved in the Eastern Question. 

The Bible makes the Hebrew family the hub and rim of the national 
wheel, of which Jehovah is the axis and Motor, the spokes being formed of 
materials gathered out of other Gentile families. In our narative of the 
origin and doings of the Hebrews, we have followed the order of God's 
Word to the prophets, kings, and fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or 
Israel. We have dwelt more at large on the family of Israel, through all 
ages to the present time, and into the future as far as their history was 
made known to the ancient seers. In this narration we have been under 
divine instruction, of God's holy Word in particular, since that sacred 
revelation follows the history of Israel and Judah to the close of the 
Apoccdypse (A. D. 96). 

The first item in this brief summary is the sending of Joseph into 
Egypt to save life, and to prepare a protracted home residence for his pater- 
nal family. These events are too familiar to require repetition. 

The Hebrew sojourn in supplementary Egypt (the land of Goshen) 
till they grew into a nation ; their subsequent bondages and deliverance by 
Jehovah ; their wanderings in the waste howling wilderness ; their organi- 
zation as a nation of priests with Jehovah and His tent service during 40 
years ; their conquests of seven nations of Canaanites in the land of 
promise; their occupancy of that land under the Theocracy till the " man- 
ner " of a kingdom began with Saul, and continued through the adminis- 
tration of David and Solomon (the twelve-tribed kings) ; and through the 
ten-tribed kingdom of Israel to the beginning of their long captivity in 
Media ; thence to the islands of the West ; also the history of the kingdom 
of Judah to their 70 years' captivity in Babylon, their return, and re-settle- 
ment in Palestine ; their continued history to the incarnation of Jesus the 
Christ ; His life, death, burial and resurrection ; His ascension and subse- 
quent priesthood ; the establishment of the Christian Church (Church of 
God) to the siege and fall of Jerusalem ; the captivity of Judah and Ben- 
jamin; their history during the times of the Gentiles. 

We have noticed, also, the first movements of their restitution. One 
thing is worthy of special remark, that, during the present century, the 
Jews (Judah and Benjamin,) have found a great national friend in the 
British Empire; and also, in the American Republic. The philosophy of 
these changes have been given. The future of the Hebrew family has been 
fully and very distinctl}' revealed by Jehovah to the prophets, and can be 
read by all that are interested in events now commencing in the Orient. 

(6) American Phase — Summary. — This is the sixth Gentile Phase, 
and the last of this order of kingdoms; not that other nations have no 
interest in the solution of the Eastern Problem, but, that these are given 
as specimens worthy of particular notice. 

The American Republic (the United States of America) has a special 



608 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

mission, towards the nations of the Occident, and the Pacific Islands of the 
Western Hemisphere, as well as towards the sun-rising, it being the con- 
necting national link between the great nations that chain the globe. It 
is a new nation in a new field, yet with an ancient mission, to be executed 
by the resistless energies of a new-born people. 

We narrated the special providence of God in the discovery of America ; 
the ships being guided by the Hand unseen to that part of the coast of the 
western continent, which was situated between the only two great empires 
in the western ocean. If the vessels had not been drifted out of the direct 
channels, the settlement of the New World would have been delayed more 
than a century, since either further north or south could have presented no 
inducements for any colonization enterprise. The settlement of New 
England by Anglo-Saxon Pilgrims gave cast to the new race about to be 
created and reared up to control the American continent. The position of 
the colonies along the coast of the Atlantic we fully noticed; also the 
eastern nationalities, represented by those colonies. Their origin and 
growth were described, and their boundary warfare with the red man. 
These conflicts were outlined as they existed in their colonial state, to the 
period of the Revolution. We then gave a sketch of the Revolution itself, 
which resulted in the birth of a new member to the world's great national 
family. This infant nation was traced in the history of the 13 colonial 
states, till their number was tripled (39), as sister states. We then took 
notice of the elements of discord between the two sections of the Union, 
the North and the South, especially that of slavery, traced the growing dis- 
content between these two great divisions of the Republic, till it culmi- 
nated in the late Rebellion ; the reasons of which failure being presented, 
viz. : that two nations of one dominant race were by divine Providence not 
allowed to occupy this western territory. We closed our brief notice of the 
great American Republic, by a glance into its future prophetic history, and 
its mission relative to the Eastern Question. This its sacred history, un- 
written by the profane historian, is replete with events of most thrilling 
interest — events which Jehovah has reserved to be accomplished by a new 
people in this new world. 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 



Dismissing the investigation of human agency as put forth by the 
great national powers of this age, let us pass to the investigation of that 
invisible agency, which, though behind earthly thrones, is still carrying 
out His own immutable purpose in the armies of heaven, and among the 
inhabitants of the earth. King Nebuchadnezzar made a noble confession, 
equally true of modern kings and earthly potentates. 

(1) It will be readily conceded that God, the Creator of the earth, and 
furnisher of its vast, and infinitely varied resources, has the power and the 
right to shape its future destiny as He deems proper. 

(2) That its destiny is distinctly enunciated in Nu. xiv. 21. — "As 
truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." — 
Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the Islands of the Sea, His glory shall 
be universal. 

(3) That the means used, and the plans by which that ultimate des- 
tiny shall be accomplished, Jehovah revealed to His ancient seers. 

(4) That by those revelations we are informed that the Almighty 
purposes 

(a) To clear the earth of its apostate destroyer, exterminate all His 
enemies, refit, refine, and elevate the earth to the most exalted state of per- 
fection, by which it is to be occupied by the elect of all ages, and placed 
under the government and dominion of His Son, the Messiah, in a univer- 
sal and endless reign of peace and rigbtrousness. 

(5) How can this great work be accomplished without the overthrow 
and removal of all human dominations, is the true Eastern Question — the 
problem of the age. 

(6) Under the Messianic Phase we shall notice what has been distinctly 
enunciated to the prophets, relative to this, Jehovah's ultimate purpose, 
and the development of His plans, and movements among the nations to 
bring about this final and glorious era, the colonization and restitution schemes. 

god's purpose, plans, and movements relative to the earth's future 
destiny as revealed to the ancient prophets. 

The Messianic Phase has the divine record (the Bible,) for its founda- 
tion and superstructure; to it we look for our testimony; to its divine 
teachings the reader is directed. Its enunciations and the words of Jesus 
agree. 

The first colonization scheme under Adam as the chief, terminated 
abruptly in the catastrophe of the flood. A new colonization scheme was 
39 (609) 



610 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

devised by Jehovah, and set in motion under the visible head of Noah and 
his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Of this movement God Himself 
ib the Alpha and Omega. This will distinctly appear as we progress. His 
will appoints and manages human affairs, for " Thine," Lord, " is the 
kingdom and the power, and the glory, Thy will be done on earth as in 
heaven." — Jesus. 

THE ORDER OF THE COLONIZATION SCHEME COMMENCED — NOAH's THREE SONS. 

Collection of Scriptures, showing God's purpose, plans, and movements among the 
families, tribes, people, and nations preparatory to the restitution and establish- 
ment of His Son, the Messiah, in a universal dominion, on the throne of His 
father David, ruling over the house Jacob (Israel) for ever. 

"And he (Noah) said, Cursed (be) Canaan ; a servant of servants shall 
he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed (be) the Lord God of Shem; 
and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he 
(Japheth) shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant." — Gen. ix. 25. 26 and 27. " These (are) the generations of the sons 
of Noah ; Shem, Ham, and 'Japheth : and unto them were sons born after 
the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and 
Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; 
Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan ; Elishah, 
and Tarshish, and Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were isles of the Gen- 
tiles divided in their lands ; every one after his tongue, after their families, 
in their nations." (These are principally European colonies.) 

(2) And the sons of Ham ; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. 
And the sons of Cush ; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Ramaah, and 
Sabtecha: and the sons of Ramah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat 
Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty 
hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty 
hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, 
and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. Out of that 
land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, 
and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah ; the same (is) a great 
city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naph- 
tuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and 
Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon, his first-born, and Heth, and the 
Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the 
Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the 
Hamathite; and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread 
abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as thou comest 
to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah, 
and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These (are) the sons of Ham, after their 
families, after their tongues, in their countries, (and) in their nations. 

(3) Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother 
of Japheth the elder, even to him were (children) born. The children of 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 611 

Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the 
children of Aram ; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. And Arphaxad 
begat Salah ; and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons ; 
the name of one (was) Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided; and 
his brother's name (was) Joktan. And Joktan begat Almodad, and She- 
leph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, and Hadaram, and Uzal, and Diklah, 
and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jacob : 
all these (were) the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling was from Mesha, 
as thou goest into Sephar, a mount of the east. These (are) the sons of 
Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their 
nations. These (are) the families of the sons of Noah, after their genera- 
tions, in their nations : and by these were the nations divided in the earth 
after the flood."— Gen. x. 1-32. 

(This chapter gives the history of the colonization scheme under 
Noah's three sons.) 

"And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it 
came to pass, as they journeyed (emigrated for colonization,) from the east, 
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And 
they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thor- 
oughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top (may 
reach) unto heaven ; and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad 
upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the 
city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord 
said, Behold, the people (is) one, and they have all one language; and 
this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, 
which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there con- 
found their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the 
earth ; and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it 
called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the 
earth ; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of 
all the earth. (The narrative now follows the destiny of Shem's family 
alone). 

These (are) generations of Shem ; Shem (was) a hundred years old and 
begat Arphaxad two years after the flood ; and Shem lived after he begat 
Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And Arphaxad 
lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah ; and Arphaxad lived after he 
begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 
And Salah lived thirty years and begat Eber ; and Salah lived after he be- 
gat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And 
Eber lived four and thirty years and begat Peleg ; and Eber lived after he 
begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 
And Peleg lived thirty years and begat Reu ; and Peleg lived after he begat 
Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. And Reu 
lived two and thirty years and begat Serug ; and Reu lived after he begat 
Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. And 



612 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

Serug lived thirty years and begat Nahor; and Serug lived after he begat 
Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And Nahor lived 
nine and twenty years and begat Terah ; and Nahor lived after he begat 
Terah a hundred and nineteen years and begat sons and daughters. And 
Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these 
(are) the generations of Terah ; Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran ; 
and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah, in the 
land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. The narrative is brought 
down to Abram, the high father of that dynasty which was to people the 
earth with a multitude of nations and give birth to the Messiah, the Son of 
God and Father of the earth's everlasting age ; the royal chief of this 
new emigration and colonization scheme. The Divine narrative hence- 
forth follows the destiny of this family through all ages then future. 
Our future quotations from the Divine record will be brief, giving such 
only as tend to explain the noted features of the Messianic Phase. 

(1) Promise to Abraham. — "And the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee 
out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 
unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great 
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be 
a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that 
curseth thee ; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Gen, 
xii. 1-4. Here we have the first elements of the Great Promise made to the 
fathers, Abram (changed Abraham), Isaac, and Jacob, and in which are ele- 
ments pertaining to Messiah's future kingdom, standing alone it would 
be quite indefinite. A great nation was to come of or from him. A 
blessing was promised to him, and through him to all families of the 
earth. An intimation was also given of some definite location. God 
speaks as the sovereign and rightful disposer of the earth, its resources, 
as well as its inhabitants; commanding him to leave his country and 
kindred. He claims the right to guide the emigration and colonization 
scheme introduced by the sons of Noah. Mark the special care of Jehovah 
for the welfare of this man. As if He had said, I have a great work, as 
my agent, for thee to accomplish among all families, that shall hereafter be 
brought into being; leave, therefore, all thy early associations and emigrate 
to a land which T have selected a home for a central occupation in the age 
of the reign of my Son, the seed of the woman — the coming Messiah. The 
elements of this promise will definitely unfold as we progress. 

(2) Second Enunciation. — "And Abram passed through the land 
(Canaan) unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of March. And the 
Canaanite (was) then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram 
and said. Unto thy seed will I give this land." Gen. xii, 6-7. This enun- 
ciation contains new and very distinct elements: (a) the deed of grant, or 
donation, of a certain tract of land. (6) This grant of land is to the seed 
of Abram. Gal. iii. 16, interprets that seed to be Christ, He being the royal 
and chief heir, (c) This is in perfect harmony with the further revelations 
of the kingdom of the Messiah whose throne shall be on Mount Zion in 
this land of original promise. God here appears as the sovereign disposer 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 613 

of the earth, and the rightful manager of the emigration and colonization 
scheme ; the right to eject one race (Canaanites) and occupy or colonize 
their land by another family, as he may deem proper. 

(3) Third Enunciation. — "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that 
Lot was separated from him. Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the 
place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and west- 
ward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it (the land of 
Canaan), and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of 
the earth ; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, (then) shall 
thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of 
it, and in the breadth; for I will give it unto thee." Gen. xiii. 14. Abra- 
ham as a joint heir is included in the deed of grant. And he is promised 
an exceedingly numerous offspring. There is here no clashing of titles 
since Abram is simply a joint heir with Christ. 

(4) Fourth Enunciation. — "And when Abraham was ninety years 
old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I (am) the 
Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my 
covenant between me and thee; and I will multiply thee exceedingly, and 
Abram fell upon his face ; and God talked with him, saying. As for me, be- 
hold my covenant (isj with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many na- 
tions. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name 
shall be Abraham ; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I 
will make thee exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of thee ; and 
kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between 
me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting 
covenant ; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will 
give unto thee and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, 
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their 
God." Gen. xvii. 1-9. New elements appear in this enunciation. 

(a) The Elohim gives himself another name, "Almighty,^' denoting an- 
other attribute, denoting His power to execute His covenants. (6) The 
name of Abram (high father) is changed to Abraham (father of many na- 
tions). His fruitfulness is affirmed, (c) The certainty of the accomplish- 
ment of the promise is fully guaranteed, (d) His interest in Abraham and 
his seed, and His perfect control over men and things are also seen. 

(5) Fifth Enunciation. — The fifth enunciation, claiming our present 
attention, was made to Isaac. " Sojourn in this land (Canaan) and I will 
be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I 
will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware 
unto Abraham, thy father ; and I will make thy seed multiply as the stars 
of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries ; and in thy seed 
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham obeyed 
my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my 
laws." Gen. xxvi. 3-5, 

Here there is direct allusion to Gen. xxii. 15-19. "And the angel of 
the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time (vs. 11) and 
said. By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done 



614 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only (son), that in bless- 
ing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as 
the stars of heaven, and as the sand which (is) on the sea shore ; and thy 
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the 
nations be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my voice." 

Two points are worthy of notice, (a) Jehovah has supreme control of 
the earth, and the emigration and colonization scheme; (6) He intended to 
carry out that scheme, principally, by the natural seed of Abraham and 
Isaac, and also by that of Jacob, as we shall soon be informed; such mem- 
bers of those who in all ages hear His voice, believe, and are obedient. 

(6) Sixth Enunciation. — When Jacob was about departing on ac- 
count of the enmity of Esau, Isaac blessed him saying, God Almighty bless 
thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a 
multitude of people ; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and 
to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art 
a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. Gen. xxviii. 3-5. "And behold, 
the Lord stood above it (the ladder) and said, I (am) the Lord God of Abra- 
ham, thy father, and the God of Isaac ; the land (Canaan) whereon thou 
liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the 
dust of the earth ; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the 
east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee, and in thy seed, shall 
all the families of the earth be blessed." Vs. 13, 14. (a) Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob were heirs of one and the same promise. Heb. xi. 9. (b) 
That promise has for one of its elements the resurrection from the dead. 
Acts xxvi. 6, 7, 8. In addition to those previously quoted see Gen. iii. 15, 
xxii. 18, xlix. 10, De. xviii. 15, 2 Sa, vii. 12, Ps. cxxxii. 11, Is. iv. 2, vii. 14, 
ix. 6-7, Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 14-16, Eze. xxxiv. 23, Da. ix. 24, Mi. vii. 20, 
Zech. xiii. 1-7, Mai.. iii. 1, Acts xiii. 32, Gal. iv. 4. (c) The land was prom- 
ised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; but neither of them, according to 
Stephen and Paul, received the fulfilment of the promise. That great 
promise, ramifying through the Bible, and shaping all actions, human and 
divine, points, for its accomplishment, to the near future. We have now 
followed the second emigration and colonization scheme from the days of 
Noah to the closing scenes in the life of Jacob (Israel). 

The point we have labored to make clear and convincing to the reader 
is that Jehovah is the originator and master spirit of that movement. He 
so shapes and controls the various human actions as to accomplish His 
ultimate purpose. This position is very distinctly brought to view in the 
Holy Scriptures. Such are its teachings relative to the Hebrew family, and 
established by Jehovah's dealings with other nationalities. The case of 
Nebuchadnezzar is illustrative of this cardinal truth. Let us read : "Ne- 
buchadnezzar, the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell 
in all the earth ; peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to show 
the signs and wonders that the high God had wrought toward me. How 
great are His signs ! and how mighty His wonders ! His kingdom (is) is 
an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion (is) from generation to genera- 
tion. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 615 

my palace ; I saw a dream which made me afraid, ana tne thoughts upon 
my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore, made I ia 
decree to bring in all the wise (men) of Babylon before me, that they might 
make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. Then came in the 
magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the sooth-sayers ; and I told 
the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the inter- 
pretation thereof. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name 
(was) Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom (is) 
the spirit of the holy gods ; and before him I told the dream (saying), 
Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the 
holy gods (is) in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of 
my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof. Thus (were) 
the visions of my head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst 
of the earth, and the height thereof (was) great. The tree f^rew, and was 
strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof 
to the end of all the earth; the leaves thereof (were) fair, and the fruit 
thereof much, and it (was) meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow 
under it, and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh 
was fed of it. 

" I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher 
and a holy one came down from heaven; he cried aloud, and said thus, Hew 
down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves and scatter his 
fruit : let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches : 
nevertheless leave the stump of his root in the earth, even with a band of 
iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field ; and let it be wet with the 
dew of heaven, and (let) his portion (be) with the beasts in the grass of 
the earth. Let his heart be changed from man's and let a beast's heart be 
given unto him ; and let seven times pass over him. This matter (is) by 
the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones : 
to the intent that the living may know that tlje Most High ruleth in the 
kingdom of men, and giveth to whomsoever He will. This dream I king 
Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, Belteshazzar, declare the inter- 
pretation thereof, for asmuch as all the wise (men) of my kingdom are not 
able to make known unto me the interpretation ; but thou (art) able ; for 
the spirit of the holy gods (is) in thee." The interpretation given by 
Daniel is as follows: " This (is) the interpretation, O king, and this (is) the 
decree of the Most High, which is come upon my lord the king. That they 
shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the 
field, and they shall make thee to eat grass, like oxen, and they shall wet 
thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou 
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to 
whomsoever He will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump 
of the tree roots ; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt 
have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, king, let my counsel 
be acceptable to thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness and thine in- 
iquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy 
tranquility. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 



616 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The 
king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the 
house of my kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my 
majesty? While the word (was) in the king's mouth there fell a voice 
from heaven (saying), king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken : the 
kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and 
thy dwelling (shall be) with the beasts of the field : they shall make thee 
to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know 
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth to whomso- 
ever He will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar : 
and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was 
wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' (feathers), 
and his nails like birds' (claws). And at the end of the days I Nebuchad- 
nezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned 
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that 
liveth for ever, whose dominion (is) an everlasting dominion, and His king- 
dom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the 
earth (are) reputed as nothing : and He doth according to His will, in the 
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can 
stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? At the same time my 
reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, returned unto 
me, my honor and brightness ; and my counsellors and my lords sought 
unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was 
added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the 
King of heaven, all whose works (are) truth, and His ways judgment; 
and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." Dan. iv. The cardinal 
truth here enunciated, and also illustrated, so distinctly relative to the 
absolute control of human destiny, whether Jew or Gentile, fully justifies 
this very lengthy quota.tion. This control and management is unlimited 
as to time and nationality. The same Jehovah equally governs and man- 
ages all nations whether ancient or modern. 

We have now followed His emigration and colonization scheme from 
Noah to Jacob and have seen Jehovah's supreme control in all its various 
ramifications and workings ; a vast machinery under the superintendence 
of one mind to bring to pass an immutable purpose relative to the earth 
and its population, sending one family to colonize one country; another 
into another land; selecting a certain land for a certain family; overthrow- 
ing cities and nations; removing, as a landlord, certain tenants and re- 
placing them by others. Such workings and changes have been constantly 
taking place during this period of about sixty centuries. These changes 
have apparently been under man's ever-changing passions and insubordin- 
ate lusts of wealth or empire. We have shown the reverse to be true: that 
they are the legitimate sequences of a great intelligence, with an overpow- 
ering will, working by plans arranged after a wise and fixed order to bring 
about the completion of a certain immutable purpose relative to the future 
of the EARTH, viz. : to fill it with His glory. 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 617 

WHAT IS THAT OEDER ? 

This order Jehovah has distinctly revealed in the following clear and 
most expressive terms : " When the Most High divided to the nations their 
inheritance when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the 
people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's 
portion (is) His people ; Jacob (is) the lot (cord or measuring line) of His 
inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wil- 
derness ; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple 
of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, 
spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; so 
the Lord alone did lead them, and (there was) no strange god with them. 
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the 
increase of the fields ; and He made him to seek honey out of the rock, and 
oil out of the flinty rock. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of 
lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys 
of wheat ; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. Since the 
family of the second Adam (Messiah) was to be a choice selection from the 
members of the family of the first Adam ; that family at the flood having 
been reduced to the family of Noah, which contained only three persons — 
prepared to emigrate, colonize and re-people the earth — from which the se- 
lection was to be made, it was necessary that the scheme should progress 
with great activity and order. Such elements the scheme, so far, had de- 
veloped. • The order of the colonization scheme has now been fully stated — 
the Hebrew family Jehovah places in a reserved land, in His own sanctuary, 
His own dwelling-place, known as the land of promise — the land of Canaan ; 
a land reserved, like reserved seats in an entertainment — a central position ; 
the hub and rim of the great national wheel — other families being the 
spokes. As if Jehovah (immediately following the flood) had said, The 
earth must again be densely populated that my Son, the Messiah, may have 
a chosen people for His reign. To accomplish that, my immutable purpose, 
I shall introduce a new colonization scheme to be in due time under the di- 
rect and visible management of one chosen family, the house of Israel of the 
family of the Hebrews, For the purpose of educating and adapting themi 
to their great mission work of colonizing the earth, I give them and reserve 
for them a land for future occupancy while under my special instruction, 
that of my Son Messiah, which shall be the seat of empire of Messiah, son 
of David, while occupying the throne of His father David and ruling over 
the house of Jacob forever." (Lu. 1, 32). 

Henceforth (from the days of Jacob) the divine narrative follows in 
the prophetic enunciations, the colonization scheme, preparator}^ to the 
Messianic reign, as carried on by the house of Jacob ; and that principally 
by his two sons, Joseph and Judah — the former to fill the earth, especially 
the great West, with nationalities of the great Hebrew race-; the latter to 
give birth to a Savior, Law-giver, and Governor. Such will appear to be 
the plans and order of Jehovah's workings to shape human actions in such 



618 THE EASTEEN QUESTION, 

a manner as to bring about His ultimate purpose, viz. : to fill the whole 
earth with His glory by establishing His Son Jesus of Nazareth, the Mes- 
siah, on the throne of David on Mount Zion over the house of Jacob for- 
ever by the following sketch of the sacred record. 

PROPHETIC SKETCH — JOSEPH'S MISSION, ALSO THAT OF JUDAH. 

That the reader may have the principal facts of the divine testimony 
in a convenient form for examination, we subjoin the following brief sum- 
mary : Joseph died in Egypt. Whatever, therefore, is predicted of him be- 
longs to his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, or to their families, and is 
tribal. Jehovah inspired Jacob to utter, on his death-bed, the following : 
"Joseph (is) a fruitful bough, (even) a fruitful bough by a well; (whose) 
branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and 
shot, (at him) and hated him : but his bow abode in strength, and the arms 
of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty (God) of Jacob : 
(from thence (is) the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel :) (Even) by the God of 
thy father, who shall help thee : and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee 
with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, 
blessings of the breasts and of the womb ; the blessings of thy Father have 
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of 
the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown 
of the head of him who was separated from his brethren." Gen, xlix. 23- 
27. "And of Joseph he (Moses) said. Blessed of the Lord (be) his land, for 
the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth 
beneath; and for the precious fruits (brought forth) by the sun, and for the 
precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the 
ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for 
the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and (for) the good will 
of Him that dwelt in the bush : Let (the blessing) come upon the head of 
Joseph, and from the top of the head of him that was separated from his 
brethren. His glory (is like) the firstling of his bullock, and his horns (are 
like) the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together 
to the ends of the earth : and they (are) the ten thousand of Ephraim, and 
they (are) the thousands of Manasseh." Deut. xxxiii. 13-18. 

SONS OP JOSEPH — EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH. 

Ephraim and Manasseh, by adoption, became the sons of Jacob and 
received the birthright which Reuben had lost by defilement of his father's 
bed. (1 Chron, v. 1-2). Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph as follows: 
"And he blessed Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) and said, God, before 
whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all 
my life long unto this day, the Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless 
the lads ; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers 
Abraham and Isaac : and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 619 

the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon 
the head of Ephraim it displeased him : and he held up his father's hand 
to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said 
unto his father, Not so, my father: for this (is) the first-born : put thy right 
hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know (it), my son, 
I know (it) : and he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: 
but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall 
become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying. In 
thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh : 
and he set Ephraim before Manasseh." Gen. xlviii. 15-20. 

MESSIANIC ENUNCIATIONS — JUDAH AND THE GENEALOGY. 

The birthright belongs to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, but the 
genealogy was the inheritance of the family of Judah, which Jehovah ap- 
pointed to be the Messianic tribe. The following may be read as Messianic 
prophecies : " And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- 
tween thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
his heel." Gen. iii. 18, xxii. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor 
a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and unto him (shall) 
the gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix. 10. (There shall be princes and 
governors in Judah until Messiah shall come). 

"And he (Balaam the son of Beor,) took up this parable, and said, and 
the man whose eyes are open hath said: he hath said which heard the 
words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, (which) saw the 
vision of the Almighty, failing (into a trance) but having his eyes open: 
I shall see Him (Messiah) but not now . I shall behold Him but not nigh : 
there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 
and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth." 
Nu. xxiv. 15-18. 

" The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst 
of thee, of thy brethren like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken. I will 
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and 
will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I 
shall command him. And it shall come to pass, (that) whosoever will not 
hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require 
(it) of him." Deut. xviii. 15. 18. 19. (See John i. 45; vi. 14; Acts iii. 22. 
23.) "And when thy (David's) days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with 
thy fathers, I will set up thy seed (Messiah) after thee, which shall proceed 
out of thy bowels, (see genealogy. Matt. i. 1 to the close — 2 Sam. vii. 12,) 
and I will establish his kingdom. And thy house and thy kingdom shall 
be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever. 
Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who (am) 
I, Lord, God? and what (is) my house, that Thou hast brought me 
hitherto? and this was yet a small thing in thy sight, Lord God; but 
Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house for a great while to come. 
And (is) this the manner of man, Lord God?" Vss. 16, 18 and 19. 



620 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

" The Lord hath sworn (in) truth unto David ; He will not turn from 
it ; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. For the Lord hath 
chosen Zion ; He hath desired (it) for His habitation. This (is) my rest 
for ever : here will I dwell ; for I have desired it." Ps. cxxxii. 11. 13. 14. 
"In that day shall the branch (Messiah, supposed to be,) of the Lord be 
beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth (shall be) excellent and 
comely for them that are escaped of Israel." Is. iv. 2. "Therefore the 
Lord Himself shall give you a sign : Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and 
bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Is. vii. 14. " For unto us 
a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon 
His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The 
miyhty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase 
of His government and peace (there shall be) no end, upon the throne of 
David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judg- 
ment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the 
Lord of hosts will perform this." Is. ix. 6. 7. (See also Luke ii. 11; Matt. 
xxviii. 18; 1 Cor. xv. 25.) "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I 
will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King (Messiah) shall reign 
and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His 
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this (is) His 
name whereby He shall be called, the lord our righteousness." Jer. 
xxiii. 5. 6. (See also Is. xi. 5 ; xl. 9. 11 ; Zech. iii. 8; vi. 11 ; Ps. Ixxii. 2; 
Deut. xxxiii. 27. 28; Zech. xjv. 9. 11; John i. 45.) 

" Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good 
thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and- to the house of 
Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch (Messiah) 
of righteousness to grow up unto David; and He shall execute judgment 
and righteousness . in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and 
Jerusalem shall dwell safely : and this (is the name) wherewith He shall 
be called. The Lord our righteousness." Jer. xxxiii. 14. 15. 16. 

"And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when 
iniquity (shall have) an end ; thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, 
and take off the crown ; this (shall not be) the same : exalt (him that is) 
low, and abase him (that is) high; I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; 
and it shall be no more, until He (Messiah) come, whose right it is; and I 
will give it Him." Eze. xxi. 25. 26. 27. "And I will set up one shepherd 
over them, and He shall feed them, (even) my servant David; He shall 
feed them, and shall be their shepherd. And I will make with them a 
covenant of peace, and will cause the wild beasts to cease out of the land ; 
and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And 
I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I 
will cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers 
of blessing." Eze. xxxiv. 23. 24. 25. 26. God says (Eze. xxxvii. 16-28), " I 
will save them (Israel and Judah) out of all their dwelling-places, wherein 
they have sinned, and I will cleanse thena : so shall they be my people, and 
I will be their God. And David (Messiah, ^on of David) my servant (shall 
be) king over them ; and they shall have one shepherd : they shall also 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 621 

walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and (do) them. And they 
shall dwell in the land that I gave unto Jacob my servant, wherein your 
fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, (even) they and their 
children, and their children's children, for ever; and my servant David 
(see Is. Ix. 21) (shall be) their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a 
covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with 
them : and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary 
in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them ; 
yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen 
shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be 
in the midst of them for evermore." " Thou sawest till that a stone (Mes- 
siah) was cut out without hands, which smote the image (see Dan. ii. 31- 
46) upon his feet (that were) of iron and clay * * * * And in the days of 
these kings (four kingdoms) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, (but) it shall break in pieces and consume all these (4) kingdoms, 
and it shall stand for ever." (See Ps. ii. 9.) " I saw in the night visions, 
(read Dan. vii.) and, behold, one like the son of man (Messiah) came with 
the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought 
Him near before Him. And there was given Him (see Ps. ii. 6-8; Matt, 
xxviii. 18; Luke xix. 12. 13; John iii. 35; 1 Cor. xv. 27; Eph. i. 20. 22,) 
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages 
should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
not pass away, and His kingdom, (that) which shall not be destroyed." 

" Know (therefore) and understand, (that) from the going forth of the 
commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince 
(shall be) seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks : the street shall be 
built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore 
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people 
of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary ; and 
the end thereof (shall be) with a flood, and to the end of the war desola- 
tions are determined. And He shall confirm (a) covenant with many for 
one week : and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and 
the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations He shall 
make (it) desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined 
shall be poured upon the desolate (desolator)." Dan. ix. 25. 26. 27. 

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way be- 
fore me : and the Lord (Messiah) whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to 
His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : be- 
hold He shall come saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day 
of His coming ? and who shall stand when He appeareth ? for He (is) like 
a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope." Mai. iii. 1. 2. 

"And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was 
made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, 
in that He hath raised up Jesus again ; as it is also written in the second 
psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee." Acts xiii. 32. 33. 

"And when the fulness of the* time was eome, God sent forth His Son, 



622 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under 
the law, that we might receive the adoj)tion of sons." Gal. iv. 4. 5. 

" For He (Messiah) must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His 
feet ; when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power." 
1 Cor. XV. 24. 25. 

"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch 
David, that he is both dead and buried ; and his sepulchre is with us unto 
this day. Therefore being a prophet, (2 Sam, xxiii, 2,) and knowing that 
God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, accord- 
ing to the flesh, he would raise up Christ (2 Sam. vii. 12. 13,) to sit on his 
throne ; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his 
soul was not left in hell (hades), neither his flesh did see corruption. This 
Jesus God hath raised up, whereof we are all witnesses." Acts ii. 29-32. 

Paul says, " There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn 
away ungodliness from Jacob." Rom. xi. 26. (See Is. lix. 20.) — "And the 
Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression 
in Jacob, saith the Lord," 

" I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things. I am 
the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.'' 
"And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not : behold, the Lion (Mes- 
siah — Gen. xlix. 9. 10; Nu. xxlv, 9; Heb. vii. 14;) of the tribe of Judah, 
the root of David, (Is. xi. 1. 10,) hath prevailed to open the book, and to 
loose the seven seals thereof." Rev. xxii. 16. v. 5. These are but a tithe of 
the Messianic enunciations; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
prophecy ; but these are sufficient to delineate the purpose of Jehovah rela- 
tive to the earth, and its future Messianic Prince and Governor. 

THE GRAND COLONIZATION SCHEME OF THE GREAT WEST. — THE GATHERING 
OF THE LAST FRUITS TO GOD AND THE LAMB (mESSIAH). 

The mission of Judah, as in the line of the Messianic genealogy, and 
as the President of the Hebrew College of instruction, confined his family 
with that of Levi, and a part of Benjamin, to the land of Israel, Jehovah's 
sanctuary, until the birth of Messiah and the accomplishment of His 
prophetic mission ; afterward to travel into all the world as missionaries of 
the Gospel of the Messiah ; while Joseph, by his two families, (adopted into 
the family of Israel,) Ephraim and Manasseh, had a mission beyond the 
land of promise. The vine extended over the wall, and beyond that en- 
closure became exceedingly fruitful in colonies and nationalities. Its 
prophetic history is clear in this particular. Jacob's prophecy concerned 
the house of Joseph in its more distant history, " and Jacob called unto his 
sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you (that) which 
shall befall you in the last days." Joseph in person, was the visible shep- 
herd of Israel, going before, and calling Jacob into Egypt ; and there lay- 
ing the foundation (stone) of their fut\ire national greatness; a temporal 
saviour, shepherd, and stone of Israel, through his appointed agency, dele- 
gated to him from Jehovah. It is said, '■>' Joseph (is) a fruitful bough by a 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 623 

well : (whose branches) run over the wall." The Hebrew nation was God's 
choice vine, brought out of Egypt and planted in His own vineyard 
(Palestine), where He built a wall about it (by circumcision and other 
peculiar institutions) to keep it from being trampled down by heathen 
nations. Joseph's branches (the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) ran 
over this wall, which act was necessary, since their missions were evidently 
beyond the limits of Palestine; the blessings of heaven, the deep and a 
multitudinous offspring, a "great people," and a "multitude of nations," 
point t a territory vastly more extended. The same appears in the song 
of Moses, "Ten thousands of Ephraim, and thousands of Manasseh." The 
mission of Judah, in carrying on the typical service in the tem-ple and in 
having missionaries to proclaim the Gospel of its Messiah through the 
world, (which is the glad tidings of His coming and endless reign,) required 
the aid of Levi in the typical priesthood, and Benjamin for missionaries; 
for (1) the tribe of Judah had no priestly power ; only royalty ; neither 
had it any evangelists, since it had rejected Christ and put Him to death 
(He came unto His own, and His own (Judah) received Him not). Ben- 
jamin had his portion next to Judah, in the centre of the kingdom, and in 
the vicinity of the temple. That tribe wa's located where it could become 
intimate with the Messiah, and might be a witness to all His wonderful 
sayings and doings, when as the great prophet, like unto Moses, should ap- 
pear in the land. The location of Benjamin and Levi, show very distinctly 
God's workings and arrangement, in carrying out His immutable purpose, 
giving the services of these two families to Judah, who had the line of the 
Messianic genealogy, while Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) had Reuben's 
birthright, viz. all the great temporal blessings. The missions of Ephraim 
and Manasseh in colonizing and nationalizing the great west, (including 
the islands of the sea and the western hemisphere,) and in pushing the 
nations into one brotherhood, as Great Britain (Ephraim) did with China, 
and the American Republic (Manasseh) did with Japan, require these tribes 
to emigrate far beyond the limited border of Palestine. How could they 
have accomplished their prophetic history (Gen. xlvii. and Deut. xxx.) and 
remain shut within the boundaries of the land of Canaan? That land was 
too limited for the accommodation of a "multitude of nations," and for a 
" great people." The prophetic history of Ephraim is as follows : " His 
younger brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he (Manasseh)." "God 
make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh ; " gets the birthright blessings. By 
them (Ephraim and Manasseh) " he (Joseph) shall push the people together 
to the ends of the earth; and they (are) the ten thousands of Ephraim." 
Joseph, the unicorn, and his two tribes (Ephraim and Manasseh) — the two 
horns which possess a singular and irresistible strength in driving its 
enemies before it. This explains Deut. xxxii. 9. Jacob, by Ephraim and 
Manasseh, is the cord or measuring line of His (God's) inheritance. They 
(Ephraim and Manasseh) shall belt the globe. These events were never 
accomplished: but they belong tp^.the "last days." (Gen. xlix. 1; xxiii. 
20.) Add what is said to Joseph},, and you have Ephraim's tribal prophetic 
history. This tribe had some very noted personages, among whom we can 



624 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

reckon Joshua. Under the kingdom of Israel there was little else than the 
regal tribe of Ephraim. Through their progressive encampments in the 
wilderness, the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin, were on the 
west; typical of their future western mission, Ephraim and Manasseh were 
the western, colonizationists and nation-builders; Benjamin the western 
missionary, who could not leave Judah till after the crucifixion, burjal and 
resurrection of the Messiah; since, as missionaries, they were required to 
carry with them the entire gospel testimony. These points illustrate the 
manner in which Jehovah acted, to carry out His immutable purpose rela- 
tive to the reign of His Son, the Messiah. For the full and more complete 
nistory of Ephraim's tribal life in the west, we refer the reader to the 
British Phase of the Eastern Question. 

MANASSEH. 

Its history. — Can that tribe he identified with the great American Republic 9 
Last human effort preparatory to the Messianic Reign. 

In our American Phase of the Eastern Question a few points have 
been touched, such as the seal of the United States, and the origin of the 
governing race in our Republic, which tend towards the American solution 
of this Manasseh problem. We subjoin a few additional thoughts relative 
to Manasseh and the tribal history, leaving the reader free to draw his own 
conclusions. 

Manasseh (the father of the tribe of that name) was the oldest son of 
Joseph by his wife Asenath, daughter of Poti-pherah, High-priest of On 
(Heliopolis, city of the sun), who was, therefore, high-priest of the sun- 
worship. Joseph, at that time, resided at Memphis, a populous, royal city, 
in view of the Great Pyramids. Having an Egyptian mother, and she the 
daughter of a high-priest of the most popular worship of the land, his 
father being the acting governor of Egypt, his thoughts being fully occupied 
with the duties of his office, could bestow no time upon the religious train- 
ing of his son. Manasseh's early ideas, both of church and state, must 
therefore, have been thoroughly Egyptian, of the aristocratic school of On. 
His maternal grandfather was a prince and a high-priest of the most popu- 
lar Egyptian idolatry, his father the vice-roy of the most noted country of 
the ancient world. We can readily form a correct estimate of the character 
of the young Egyptian Manasseh, prior to the sojourn of his paternal grand- 
father Jacob, in the land of Goshen, and his adoption into Israel's family. 
At the time of Jacob's blessing, when, by divine Providence, his birth-right 
passed over to his younger brother Ephraim, he was a youth of about 22 
years of age. Manasseh was free-born, therefore, in his parentage, since by 
a decree of Pharoah (Gen. xlvii. 22.) the land of the priests were not to be 
sold ; they ate the bread of freedom. Having spent 22 years in a palace of 
Egpptian priestly royalty, it could not be a matter of wonder, if this early 
aristocratic culture had left its imprint on Manasseh's mind, countenance, 
and on his outward deportment. Being thoroughly Egyptian drilled 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 626 

during the first twenty-two years of his life, his ideas and habits would 
partake of his mother's, rather than those of his father Joseph, especially 
after learning the early history of his father, and the simple manners and 
poverty of his grandfather Jacob, and of his paternal uncles. Manasseh 
was an aristocratic born Egyptian, full of the idolatrous pride of his 
mother's nation. Taking into consideration his idolatrous birth and 
education, it is a miracle of filial obedience, guided by the Great Unseen, 
that he, at such an age, should allow himself to be adopted into the family 
of Israel. The adoption, however, had no power to remove his birth-right 
disabilities, recognized by Jehovah, in guiding his grandfather's hand in 
the blessing. 

His early education had disqualified him for the exercise of that birth- 
right of God's chosen family, since it was truly the birth-right, forfeited by 
Reuben, Jacob's first-born, since he was too deeply tainted with Egyptian 
notions and practices. 

HIS LIFE IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN. 

With the adoption begins a new life with the two sons of Joseph, 
especially with Manasseh, as he being the older, was the more closely 
wedded to the practices of the polished Egyptians. He now, by his adop- 
tion, becomes a member of Jacob's family, and, as a son, joint heir in the 
promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and his adopted father Jacob. We are 
not prepared to state the exact number of years that Manasseh and his 
family resided in Goshen. It continued, however, from the death of Jacob, 
through the period of bondage to their deliverance under Moses — about two 
hundred and fifteen years, during which time the Hebrews grew into a 
populous nation. Their Exodus was 215 years after Jacob entered Egypt 
(he was then 130 years old, and died at 147 years of age), residing in Goshen 
(Ramses) 17 years. Hence Manasseh resided in the same land with his 
adopted father Jacob 17 years under domestic regulations, civil and religious, 
quite dissimilar to those taught him by his mother in the palace of Memphis. 
Manasseh must have been a poor shepherd ; for how could he slay sheep 
and oxen, held so sacred by his beloved mother? Shepherds were an 
abomination to the Egyptians.. Manasseh being a half-blooded Egyptian, 
and for the first 22 years of his life, thoroughly taught in its national 
practices, is obliged to ignore his early notions and habits, and conform to 
religious practices, once regarded as an abomination. 

Nothing less than divine power could have worked out such a revolu- 
tion in human thought and action. Add to this the probable fact that 
Manasseh's wife was also an Egyptian. Manasseh's family were, therefore, 
three-fourths blooded Egyptians. The same was probably true of the 
family of Ephraim. Add still to these difficulties in the way of a ready 
and cheerful coalescing with the opinions and practices of the natural sons 
of Jacob ; the fact, also, that his father Joseph had been sold by them into 
bondage, and we have existing in this family, while residing in Goshen, 
and onward through coming ages, a problem, complex and very diflQcult of 
40 



626 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

solution. How could the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh dwell in peace 
and harmony with the other tribes of Israel ? 

Their habits and modes of thoughts were dissimilar ; in a word, they 
were natural born and adopted children ; the one class was three-fourths 
Egyptian, in origin, manners, and habits of life, the other class was purely 
Hebrew. That they did not dwell together in social harmony is evident 
from their succeeding tribal history. Ephraim had Manasseh's birth-right, 
with Judah was royalty. Parental jealousies were handed over to their 
families, and lived in those. "With Judah, also, was the chain of genealogy 
by which the Messiah was to be demonstrated to be the Son of God, that son 
of David who was to occupy His throne through endless ages. "And the 
genealogy is not reckoned after the birth-right ; for Judah prevailed above 
his brethren, and of him (came) the chief ruler, but the birth-right (was) 
Joseph's." There was a continued family feud existing between Judah 
and Ephraim. Ephraim envied Judah and Judah vexed Ephraim (Is. xi. 
13.). Manasseh had cause of complaint and constant jealousy against his 
brother Ephraim, who had his birth-right when it should have been 
divided, since it was given to the two brothers (1 Chr. v. 1. 2.) and against 
the Hebrew-born sons, for their treatment of his father Joseph, whom they 
sold into Egyptian servitude ; and especially against Judah for his temporal 
prosperity, and for his claim to the chief rulership. 

Manasseh (personally, and in his family), while residing in the land of 
the proud Pharoah, and of his father's exaltation, must have been laboring 
under insulted pride, and have been envious of the elevation of those 
families so inferior by birth and education. The family of Manasseh, while 
dwelling upon its native soil, had natural rights, superior to the Egyptians 
in general, or to the Hebrews; (1) they were, as to parentage, free-born, it 
being of the priesthood, it partook of the privileges of that order ; (2) they 
were, by birth-right, of the roj^alty, since Joseph, the temporal Savior and 
Founder in Egypt of the Hebrew nationality (as the stone of Israel). The 
family, therefore, could not fail to recognize their natural superiority, and 
its members would possess towards the natural-born slaves, a feeling similar 
to that of the slave masters of the South towards their slaves. Such a spirit 
must have existed in the family of Manasseh, and would naturally produce 
envy and hatred in the breasts of such as felt their inferiority. This feeling 
of native superiority and independence must have continued inherent and 
have followed that tribe through all succeeding ages, and finally have con- 
stituted a distinct national feature, a peerless independence, a freedom of 
thought and action. 

The history of that tribe is too meagre and fragmentary to allow us 
any very distinct or minute information relative to these Manasseh traits 
of character in a continuous chain to the present ; still, a sufficiency appears 
here and there to enable us to decide upon the fact of their real existence. 

MANASSEH (tRIBE OF) IN THE WILDERNESS^ 

But little is said of the family of Manasseh during its sojourn in the 
wilderness. Their instruction, however, was of such a character, as to un- 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 627 

fold to them the attributes, especially the almighty and protecting power 
of their invisible guide, and of the special mission of Moses as his visible 
law-giver and governor. The ten plagues, God's executive judgments on 
Egypt, its maternal nation ; the overthrow of Pharoah and his hosts at the 
Red Sea, taught that family a new lesson in divine things, and gave them 
an ocular demonstration of the vast superiority of the Hebrew Deity. 
During their forty j^ears of wanderings and hardships in the vast howling 
wilderness, the law was their schoolmaster; the tabernacle their visible 
temple in which was Jehovah's visible glory, and which was a perpetual 
symbol of the universe, the dwelling-place of the Almighty — the Creator 
of all things. Thus was the tribe of Manasseh taught the elements of that 
new religious system, which, in the last days was to form the bulwark of 
their national greatness. They were instructed in the elements of new 
laws new religion,, new manners and customs, and were made familiar with 
the attributes of the Hebrew God, having daily demonstrations of the 
superiority of the Hebrew worship over that of Egypt. This elementary 
drilling was necessary to prepare them for the work of their great Western 
Mission. As another symbol of their future abode in the Occident, the 
tribe of Manasseh, with those of Ephraim and Benjamin, occupied the 
west side of the Tabernacle square, in their encampments, and on their 
marches. 

MANASSEH UNDER THE THEOCRACY- — JUDGES — 450 YEARS ACTS XIII. 20. 

The tribe of Manasseh, while occupying the two portions of their 
temporary dwelling-place in the land of Canaan, suffered a varied experi- 
ence, as a preparatory drill for their western life. It should ever be kept 
before the reader, that Jehovah Himself is their Invisible, yet Chief In- 
structor and Guide in all their temporary sojournings and in their nomadic 
life. He is gradually fashioning their religious thought, their national 
ideas, and their constitution and habits of life, for the vast scheme of 
colonizing the Great West, in which that family was to occupy such an 
important and so responsible a position. 

The family was, for some wise object in Jehovah's purpose, divided 
into two parts, who had their separate lots, the one east of Jordan, with 
Reuben and Gad; the other west of that river, and north of Ephraim, 
whose lot, north of Benjamin, was evidently selected for its convenience to 
the temple service. The location of Manasseh in Palestine and its division 
were significant, and evidently preparatory to certain features in th« work of 
the Western Mission. Under the Theocracy (God's rule) which continued 
through the visible administration of Judges, covered a period of about 
four and one-half centuries (Acts xiii. 21.) in which Jehovah Himself acted 
as in the wilderness Each division took an active part in the affairs of 
the Hebrew commonwealth. Gideon and Jepthah were distinguished 
judges in Israel; but the division of that tribe had a far-reaching influence 
over their tribal destiny. That part which was located on the west of 
Jordan, was on the north of Ephraim. It was interested and very active 



628 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

in the political and religious affairs of Israel. They were zealous students 
and able defenders of that divine code delivered unto Moses, for the govern- 
ment and training of that nation preparatory to Messiah's incarnation. 
This western half-tribe produced the educators of Manasseh in the Hebrew 
religion and in their civil jurisprudence, and were also the official workers 
of that tribe in the family of their adoption (Israel), while the temple 
service was conducted by the tribe of Levi, and the divine Hebrew royalty, 
remained by promise, in the tribe of Judah. The Western Manasseh took 
its full share of the expenses set apart to sustain this nation of priests, and 
to keep up the temple services. While the west half-tribe was thus 
occupied, the transjordanic half-tribe was being drilled for a work of quite 
another character. 

It is not stated why Machir, Manasseh's oldest son, took up his abode 
on the east of Jordon and so distant from the centre of the Hebrew com- 
monwealth ; their future history,, however, gives us some grounds for a rea- 
sonable conjecture. The dejection at the foot of Sinai, amid the thunder- 
ings of Jehovah and the trumpet soundings, developed the idol thoughts of 
and longings after Egypt. Every slight deprivation of food brightened up 
the smoldering embers of their affections for their native soil, though in 
abject slavery. Such was their tardiness in becoming assimilated to their 
new modes of life. This longing after the flesh-pots of Egypt, they carried 
with them through the wilderness; and that attachment to the land of 
their nativity and their jealousies of Jehovah, their new God, toward the 
tribes of Judah, Levi, Benjamin, kept them at a distance from the taber- 
nacle. 

During the four and a half centuries of the Theocracy the East-Jor- 
danic division of Manasseh was developing the elements of a new life, quite 
unlike that of the Hebrew-born sons. They became Bedouins of the great 
wilderness northeast of Jordan, preferring the freedom of those mountain 
wilds to the more refined and pious society in the immediate vicinity of 
the tabernacle. (1 Chron. v. 19, 22). They gradually mixed with the in- 
habitants of the country, adopting their manners and habits of thought 
and action. They became warriors. 

MANASSEH UNDER THE TWELVE-TRIBED MONARCHY. 

Manasseh, under the administration of kings Saul, David and Solomon 
continued to develop its two-fold character. While the Western half-tribe 
remained attached to Judah and the temple service, preferring the more 
quiet lives of shepherds and agriculturists and the religion and royalty 
about the temple; the Eastern half-tribe, under the lead of its nomadic 
warriors, was cultivating the spirit of freedom. The families of Machir, 
Jair and Nubah (Egyptians by birth) were celebrated warriors with Egyptian 
habits and modes of thought. Their tribal characteristics were exhibited 
in the lives and acts of Gideon and Jeptha; and later in Elijah, the Tish- 
bite, and in others. The prophetic enunciation of Jacob still lingered in 
the memory of Manasseh depriving them of their parental birthright. The 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 629 

jealousies of the times of Joshua (who was of Ephraim). Gideon and Jep- 
tha still continued to be remembered with the Eastern half-tribe as repre- 
sentative men. The general scope of our work, the brevity of our time and 
space, will not permit us to trace Manasseh through a minute history of its 
sojourn in the land of promise under the Theocracy, including Josliuah's 
conquest of the seven nations of Canaan, the period of the Judges, cover- 
ing four and one-half centuries, or through the reign of Saul, David and 
Solomon ; nor during the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel ; or 
through their long captivity commencing under Shalmaneser, king of 
Assyria. Sufficient has been written to guide the reader in estimating the 
distinctive characteristics of the family of Manasseh through these pro- 
tracted periods, even down to his entering upon the work of colonizing the 
distant West, for which his Eastern education and drill had been well de- 
signed to fit him. This, however, permit us to say, that from the closest in- 
vestigation the reader will find that the Eastern half-tribe, that went first 
into captivity, never lost the imprint of those traits of character possessed 
by their great progenitor, the Manasseh of Egypt.- Though constituting in 
his western field of labor one of the ten tribes confederated under Ephraim 
as chief, (whose history will be found under British Phase of the Eastern 
Question) still there is a want of any perfect union of ideas and modes of 
action, or any trusted or safe coalescing of elements. The same independ- 
ent spirit as was possessed by Manasseh himself formed at Memphis (Egypt) 
during the first twenty-two years of his life, and carried with him to the 
land of Goshen, where as an adopted son of Israel he finished his earthly 
pilgrimage; and which spirit continued with his family through all suc- 
ceeding generations. To these original traits of character others were 
joined, till, as is very reasonable to suppose, they were duly educated a peo- 
ple to enter upon the work of their western mission of expanding into a 
great people in the New World. Under the teachings of history, ancient 
and modern, would it be thought impertinent to suggest : Is not the " live 
Yankee " the American Manasseh ? Is it not the Puritan element that is 
traceable to England, back through the revolutionary times of Cromwell, 
into Europe and thence eastward ? Ephraim and Manasseh at first asso- 
ciated were to be separated. They were to be ultimately distinct and 
nationally apart. The one was to be a '■'■multitude of nations f the other a 
"great peopled Look at the British colonies, the cordon of the Globe, see 
the wording of our American Constitution : " We, the people of the 
United States " — the people our only acknowledged sovereign. Where 
on the face of the vast Globe do we find any other sovereign of that name ? 
The world has had its shahs, its sultans, its kings, its emperors, but where 
has it another sovereign denominated, " We, the People?" The name of 
this sovereign is as ancient as the days of Jacob (Gen. xliii. 19), and it was 
given by inspiration to Manasseh through his family. 

This question of identity of the tribe of Manasseh with our American 
Republic we do not pretend to answer. The problem is very difficult of 
solution; let wiser heads and persons more competent complete the process. 
A few additional thoughts we shall be permitted to suggest: (1) If the 



630 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

British empire is Ephraim is it not certain that the U. S A. is Manasseh ? 
Do they not fully answer that relationship ? (2) Does not the seal of our 
Republic (in its frustum of a pyramid) show an Egyptian thought, origin- 
ally, and handed down by tradition in the family of one whose early years 
passed in distinct view of a pyramid of which ours is an exact pattern? 
Other points might be noticed, but these must answer for present illustra- 
tion. 

Allow us to say, relative to this identity problem, that England in her 
past history has developed the fact that she carried in her bosom two fami- 
lies widely dissimilar in their ideas both of Church and State— the one in- 
clined to ideas of nobility, royalty and to a national church establishment; 
the other to liberty and equality, both in Church and State. Since two 
classes so opposite in their views could not dwell in peace and harmony on 
the same territory, God in His wise providence was opening up another 
country where the tree of liberty, civil and religious, might be planted, 
which, springing up, might in due time bear fruit abundantly, yielding a 
plentiful harvest every month. 

The new continent gave the Puritan element ample room to expand 
rapidly into a " Great People,''^ it being an asylum for that peculiar family, 
who, born in the great Theological Seminary of the eastern world, having 
there imbibed the first rudiments of national culture ; and in the " wilder- 
ness " its first religious training under the visible symbols of Jehovah, the 
true God and Moses, His prophet and law-giver; and in Palestine, the land 
of future promise of coming glory, its early training in its nationality ; first 
under Saul, David and Solomon, sovereigns under the united kingdom, 
then under its divided form, and, traveling westward during long centu- 
ries of nomadic life, sojourning in the islands of the western seas for gen- 
erations, with their noble brethren, under the domination of the lordly 
tribe of Ephraim ; and having been instructed in the gospel of life by the 
missionaries of Benjamin, the pupils of Jesus, the Messiah, and being thus 
furnished with the gospel of peace and salvation, as Puritan pilgrims were 
prepared to plant in the vast wilderness- of the Occident the seeds soon to 
germinate and grow up into a mighty ""people.''^ From that people will be 
gathered the western harvest to God and to the Lamb. 

CONCLUSION. 

The great event of the world's history which is approximately near 
and hastens greatly is Enunciated in the second Psalm : Yet have i set my 
King upon my holy hill of Zion. It is there represented as an event 
already accomplished to denote its Author and the certainty of its accom- 
plishment. With God all things transpire in one eternal Now. The Coro- 
nation, the Coronator, the Coronated, the Place, the Time, the Prepara- 
tions for that event and the Results are propositions involved in our in- 
vestigations of the Eastern questioja and which carry with them an abiding 
interest. 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 631 

1. THE CORONATION. 

The world has been the bloody theatre of human conflicts and the hor- 
rors of death-struggles have been the most distinct features of every age 
since the death of Abel. Some have had no special bearing on human des- 
tiny : others have been noted for an influenc deep and wide-spread, chang- 
ing the face of things like a river cutting a new channel. 

Professor Creasy has enumerated fifteen such decisive battles of the 
world, commencing with the battle of Marathon and ending with that of 
Waterloo, from B. C. 490 to A. D. 1815—2305 years. By the battle of Mara- 
thon the world was prepared, in part, to change masters from the ''Silver" 
monarchy of the Persian to that of the " brazen-crested " Greek ; (2) by the 
defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse (B. C. 413) the pure Grecian family 
took one of its first retrograde movements for the introduction of the rising 
family of Rome ; (3) The battle of (Arhela B. C. 331) completed the death- 
throes of Persian supremacy ; (4) The battle of Metaurus (B. C. 207) ; (5) 
The defeat of the Romans under Varus (A. D. 9) ; (6) The battle of Chalons 
(A. D. 431) was a decisive struggle between the Caucasian and Mongolian 
races; (7) The battle of Tours (A. D. 732) decided whether Europe hence- 
forth should be Christian or Mohammedan ; (8) The battle of Hastings (A. 
D. 1066) between the Normans and Saxons resulted in the formation of a 
new character for the Briton by the permanent union of the Norman and 
Saxon families ; (9) The exploits of Joan of Arc (1429) [Fr. Jeanne D'Arc] 
at Orleans, hence called the " Maid of Orleans," resulted in the coronation 
of Charles VII., the dauphin, as king of France and the expulsion of the 
English ; (10) .-The defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) was a triumph of 
Protestant England over Catholic Europe and in its results far-reaching- 
(11) The battle of Blenheim (1704) was bloody and very decisive in its re- 
sults against the French and Bavarians; (12) The battle of Pultowa (1709) 
between Charles XII. and Peter the Great was decisive in its results to 
establish the imperial despotism of Russia; (13) The defeat of Burgoyne at 
Saratoga (1777) was the decisive event of the Revolution ; the day-dawn of 
American liberty and a corner-stone in the temple of freedom ; (14) The 
battle of Valmy (1792) though simply a skirmish between the French and 
the Prussians, called "the cannonade of Valmy," was, in its moral results 
far-reaching, it being the first triumph of Republican arms over the crowned 
heads of Europe; the battle of Waterloo (1815) between Napoleon and the 
Continental armies put an end to the hopes of the ambitious Corsican as 
well as to the visions of a fifth Gentile universal monarchy. These battles 
were great events in the world's history. Each was productive of very de- 
cisive changes ; yet in the broadest sense of human effort they were but 
pebbles dropped upon the surface of a restless ocean : sparks that explode 
the lesser magazines of human domination while the vast sea of life rolls 
its resistless waves unheeded toward the shores of the Age of ages, and the 
vast store-house of the acts of all races of every period of earth's eventful 
history remains securely barred against all efforts of human curiosity ; but 



632 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

the coronation of Messiah, God's holy King, on Mount Zion, by Jehovah 
Himself, surrounded by heaven's hierarchy, on the throne of His father, in 
a universal and endless reign (over the house of Jacob) of subjugation and 
of peace, is an event so infinitely superior to others that have occupied 
human thought that they fade before it as the pale beams of the Moon be- 
fore the rising glories of the Sun ; not only in its results, but in the vast- 
ness and splendor of the assembly, in the act itself, the placing of earth's 
diadem upon the head of Him whose it is by right and in the dignity of 
the person officiating ; but of Him that is crowned the Messiah, the Son of 
God. 

2. THE CORONATOR. — " YET HAVE I SET MY KING." 

Who is this noted personage that thus speaks ? Jehovah himself. The 
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, whose peculiar character He has dis- 
tinctly revealed to His ancient seers, Isaiah and Daniel, who graphically 
delineate it in the following passages. Jehovah and His court are thus de- 
scribed by Isaiah : " In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord 
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 
Above it stood the seraphims ; each one had six wings ; with twain He 
covered His face, with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He 
did fly. And one cried to another and said. Holy, holy, holy (is) the Lord 
of hosts ; the whole earth (is) full of His glory." Is. vi. 1, 2, 3. 

The visions of Ezekiel, regarding the temple of the future, its service, 
priesthood, administration, and surroundings, present Jehovah in the 
reign of subjugation, still Ezekiel saw nothing but a " cloud infolding itself, 
and brightness about it, and out of the midst thereof, as the color of amber, 
out of the midst of the fire." Eze. i. 4. 

Daniel thus describes his personage : " 1 beheld till the thrones (of 
judgment) were cast down, (placed for a court session) and the Ancient of 
days did sit, whose garments (was) white as snow, and the hair of His head 
like the pure wool ; His throne (was like) the fiery flame, (and) His wheels 
(as) burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him ; 
thousand and thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten 
thousand stood before Him ; the judgment was set and the books (of testi- 
mony against the criminal, the little horn), were opened." Dan. vii. 9-10. 
This session of judgment is national, it being at the trial of the power 
symbolized by the little horn. The books contain the recorded testi- 
mony of his words and deeds. He is condemned and the sentence is 
executed ; after which another personage appears before the throne : " I 
saw in the night visions, and behold, (one) like the Son of man (see Lu. 
xix. 12) came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days ; 
and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him do- 
minion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages 
should serve Him ; His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall 
not pass away and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Vss. 
13, 14. 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 

These sessions of national judgment continue till the coronation of 
God's King upon His holy hill of Zion ; therefore, Daniel sees the Di- 
vine Majesty as He will appear on the day of the coronation of His Son; 
when, as the son of David, He receives the crown and the throne to " rule 
over the house of Jacob forever." Lu. i. 32-33. His person. His retinue, 
and the entire audience make this the grandest events ever to transpire. 
The views of the Deity in the rock, on the Mount (Sinai), and in His 
wilderness tent were obscured as to His personage. Here it will be dis- 
tinct and glorious. 

3. THE CORONATED. 

Jehovah calls Him "My King." In vss. 7 and 8 Messiah himself is 
introduced, saying, " I will declare the decree, (or for a decree) the Lord 
said unto me, (Messiah) Thou (art) my Son ; this day have I begotten 
Thee. Ask of me (the Father) and I shall give Thee the heathen (for) Thy 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth (for) Thy possession." 
His Sonship is declared in Matt. iii. 17 at His baptism : "And lo, a voice 
from heaven. Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; " and 
in Matt, xvii. 5, at His transfiguration : "And behold, a voice out of the 
cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; 
hear ye Him." Such is the dignity ; such is the official majesty of Him 
whom Jehovah anoints King upon Zion, the hill of " My holiness.'''' How 
exalted will be Jesus of Nazareth, the Babe of Bethlehem, as to His nature : 
" Wherefore G-od also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name 
(Jesus — Savior) which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus 
every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
(things) under the earth, and (that) every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ (Messiah) (is) Lord to the glory of God the Father." Ph. ii. 9, 10, 
11. Messiah is " King of Kings, Lord of Lords." " The Father of the 
everlasting Age." " Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light ; thrones, dom- 
inations, princedoms, virtues, powers, hear my decree, which, unrevoked, 
shall stand. This day have I begot whom I declared my only Son, and on 
this holy hill Him have anointed whom ye now behold at my right hand ; 
your head I Him appoint ; and by myself have sworn to Him shall bow 
all knees in heaven, and confess Him Lord." — Milton. In this regal dona- 
tive the whole earth is included, for the earth being the Lord's, and the 
fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein (Ps. ii. and xxiv. 
and Dan. vi. 9, 10, 13, 14) the regal patrimony of His Son is universal. 
"And there was given unto Him (the Son of man, of David, of God, the 
Messiah), dominion and glory^ and a kingdom that all people, nations, and 
languages should serve Him ; His dominion (is) an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and His kingdom (that) which shall not be de- 
stroyed." Vss. 13, 14. He is also the Redeemer. " The Redeemer shall 
come to Zion, and unto them that turn away from ungodliness in Jacob." 
Is. lix. 20. (See also Ro. xi. 26). The titles given to the Messiah in the 
Bible ; His nature and official greatness, entitle Him to all the honors given 
Him by man, by angels, and by the Father Almighty. 



634 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

4. PLACE OF CORONATION. 

Jehovah says, '' On my holy hill op Zion." "Where is the hill (mount) 
of Zion? Its location being a matter of Divine Revelation, its position is 
fixed by God's own word. To the Scriptures, therefore, we appeal for 
definite testimony as to its topography. Jehovah calls it a hill, " My holy 
hill of Zion." He also calls it a Mount. Is it a literal mountain ? Has it 
a geographical position ? Is it as truly a literal mountain as that of 
Olives ? Is its topography as literal and fixed as other mountains and sites 
about Jerusalem ? Its location from an investigation of the following 
passages : (1) "David took from the Jebusites, the stronghold of Zion ; the 
same is the city of David, so David dwelt in the fort and called it the city 
of David." 2 Sa. v. 7-9. Did King David have his seat of royalty on any 
other hill in Jerusalem than that of Zion ? Had the temple any other loca- 
tion ? The topography, therefore, of his seat of empire, both regal and 
sacerdotal, was the hill (or mount) of Zion. Upon it stood his palace and 
the temple. The same view is advanced b}'- the author of the Maccabees : 
"Upon this all the host assembled themselves together and went up into 
Mount Zion. At that time also they builded up the Mount Zion with high 
walls and strong towers round about, lest the Gentiles should come and 
tread it down as they had done before." 1 Mace, iv, 37-60. "And after 
this went Nicanor up to the Mount Zion, and there came out of the sanctu- 
ary certain of the priests, and certain of the elders of the people, to salute 
him peaceably, and to show him the burnt-sacrifice that was offered for the 
king." 1 Mace. vii. 33. These historic passages clearly define the hill of 
Zion to be a definite and literal hill in the city of Jerusalem, called holy, it 
being the visible seat of Jehovah's visible glory in the holy of holies of 
God's holy temple. On that mount the holy Father crowns His only be- 
gotten Son, the Son of David, the Son of man, to commence His reign on 
the throne of David, over the house of Jacob, in a universal and endless 
empire of peace, love, and righteousness. 

• 

5. TIME OF THE CORONATION. 

Is it in the past, or is that great event yet to transpire ? If that King 
be the Messiah of whom David was the type and royal father, which is very 
generally conceded, still, its future, by many worthy expositors, is seriously 
controverted. Was Jesus, the Messiah, crowned at His ascension ? Stephen 
said, "Behold, I see heaven opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand 
of God." Acts. vii. 55. Sixty-two years after His ascension, Jesus said, 
'*To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as 
I also overcame, and set down with my Father in His throne." Rev. iii. 
21. Jesus is that Nobleman that went into a far country to receive for 
Himself a kingdom, and to return. Up to this time (A. D. 96) Messiah was 
at the right hand of the Father occupying His Father's throne. He officiat- 
ing as the anti-typical High Priest in that far country, heaven itself. Why, 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 635 

then, did He not, at once, receive for Himself a kingdom ? Because the 
duties of another office, that of His priesthood, were required to be exe- 
cuted before His kingdom could be received. The Messiah undertook the 
work necessary to secure redemption. That work required the execution of 
the duties of three consecutive offices : (a) those of a prophet ; (b) those 
of a High Priest ; and (c) those of a king. During the period of the first 
advent He filled the office of a great Teacher, like unto Moses ; and when, 
on the cross, he said, "It is finished," it was simply the winding up of 
those duties connected with His prophetic office, and with His introduction 
to the priestly office ; at His ascension He entered upon the discharge of 
His official work of His priestly office which he could not execute on 
earth, since it required His personal presence in the holy of holies — 
heaven itself. He is, during the official work of His priesthood, a High 
Priest upon His Father's throne ; where He still sits, and will continue un- 
til then that office is fully executed. He is then introduced to the Ancient 
of days (Dan. vii. 13-14) as one ready through obedience to enter upon the 
discharge of the duties of His third office, viz. those of a king. It is then 
that His coronation takes place; and His inauguration, or investment with 
all the rights and insignia of His regal office, the chief heir to the throne 
of His father David, with authority to re-establish that kingdom that had 
been without a diadem and in ruins since the days of Zedekiah ; He whose 
right it is, is crowned, and as King of kings, and Lord of lords, enters 
upon the official work of subjugation (1 Co. xv. 26), Messiah's priestly 
office must first be finished. 

To approximate the time of the coronation let us examine the data 
given in Dan. vii. 9-12. The power symbolized by the little horn, is ar- 
raigned before the Court of the Ancient of days, that august personage be- 
ing President. Charges are brought forward, and by legal testimony, 
amply sustained. Judgment is rendered in favor of the saints; the crim- 
inal is ordered to execution That national judgment has been in process 
of execution during the present century. That national judgment must 
anti-date its execution, and, therefore, near the close of the last century ; 
but the Son of man is not introduced to the Ancient of days, till after the 
sentence is being executed, and, consequently, does not receive His king- 
dom till a later date; the judgment, therefore, is future, but near. 

6. THE PREPARATIONS. 

The extent of time occupied by the preparations, and their vastness 
and variety have been quite fully investigated in the various Phases of the 
Eastern Question. To those we direct the reader, some closing thoughts 
may, however, be in place. 

The welcome given by Jesus to His subjects and joint heirs as He takes 
His seat upon the throne of His glory at the close of the coronation and 
inauguration ceremonies, expresses in a single sentence the nature and re- 
sults of the vast scheme of preparation : ^^Conie ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,^^ pre- 



636 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

pared for the first Adam and his> family ; and from a seed preserved from the 
ruins of that dynasty, increased, educated, and assimilated for the reign in 
righteousness of Messiah upon the throne of His father David. 

We have monuments of human effort that are objects of admiration 
and wonder. What a vast amount of thought and physical effort assumes 
shape in the Great Pyramid (the pillar of witness) of Egypt, and in the 
temple ef Solomon ; yet these labors of mind and body are as the dust of 
the balance when compared to the work of Jehovah to seat His Son upon 
His " holy " Hill of Zion, the throne of universal empire. Of that work 
profane history has recorded but a very meagre and imperfect outline. 
Sacred history, by its revelations in plain and symbolic language end 
records, has supplied the deficiency. The vast colonization scheme by 
which the earth has been filled with people, gathered into families, tribes, 
and nationalities ; the selection of a single land as the seat of empire ; the 
choice and training of one family to occupy that land where they were to 
be multiplied and educated as the colonizers and missionaries of all races 
and languages; the carrying forward of that scheme by said family and 
preparing the elements for the kingdom of Messiah, His Son as a Re- 
deemer and Ruler, have been to Jehovah a work far greater, and vastly 
more complex and difiicult than that of the original creation. 

These preparations, however, now hasten to a conclusion, and the 
movements of the nations indicate the setting in and the progressive 
developments of the last act of the national drama, viz. the Restitution of 
His ancient chosen family, and the organization of Messiah's kingdom, and 
the beginning of His reign (Dan. ii. 44, vii. 13-29, 1 Cor. xv. 25-26). For 
this crowning event we are commanded to pray, " Thy kingdom come, thy 
will be done on earth as in heaven." 

(7) RESULT OF THE CORONATION — WORK OF RESTITUTION. 

The results of the coronation are vast, universal and endless, Messiah, 
begins, as the Stone (Dan. ii. 44.) the work of universal empire over the 
earth, when full of his enemies, in the form of powerful states, kingdoms, 
and empires, resolved to contend in deadly strife, for every foot of territory. 
Messiah's right to the earth's diadem will be hotly contested. Hence it is 
said, " The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion ; " " Rule 
thou in the midst of thine enemies * * * The Lord (Messiah) at thy right 
hand, shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath; He shall judge 
among the heathen ; He shall fill (the places) with dead bodies ; He shall 
wound the head over man y> countries." Ps. ex. 2, 5, 6. The second Psalm 
conveys the same ideas. The " Stone " (Messiah) makes dust of the image 
before, as a " mountain " it fills the whole earth, " He must reign till He 
hath put all his enemies under His feet," 1 Cor. xv. 26. " And the nations 
were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they 
should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants 
the prophets ; and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name small and 
great : and Thou shouldst destroy them that destroy the earth." Rev. xi. 10. 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 637 

With the coronation and inauguration, commences the work of Mes- 
siah's regal office, the reign of subjugation : for, "He must reign, till He 
hath put all enemies under His feet." The official reign of Messiah does 
not terminate till the nations of the earth shall be subjected to His sceptre, 
and the " whole earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord." " Thy King- 
dom Come." Hasten that event and that day. 

" Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of All." 



CONCLUSION — ASPECT OP THE NATIONS, EELATIVE TO THE KESTITUTION AND 

CORONATION. * 

The present aspects of the governing nations towards the Orient, author- 
izes the following statements : (1) The movement of the nations eastward 
are under the direct control and supervision of Jehovah, and are prepara- 
tory to the Restitution and Union of Judah and Israel in the land promised 
to the seed (Messiah) of Abraham ; then to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and 
others as joint heirs; and the establishment of Jesus of Nazareth, the "Son 
of David," and the " Son of God," upon the throne of his father David, on 
the hill of Zion, in Jerusalem, to rule over the house of Jacob forever (Lu. 
i. 32, 4.) on the overthrow and removal (Dan. ii. 44.) of all human author- 
ity, power, and civil domination. The true eastern question in Jeho- 
vah's view is simply this : how can the restitution and the establish- 
ment OF the messianic kingdom take place without a general war, 
resulting IN the overthrow of all human domination and power? 

The great powers of the world, especially of Europe, seem at present to 
be under an instinctive foreboding of some terrible Crisis, which they are 
neither able to avoid nor resist. Jehovah is allowing their self-deception; 
and, by arming themselves apparently, in self-defence against each others' 
ambitions, and selfish encroachments, is pushing them blind-folded into 
the fatal snare ; for as a snare shall this terrible conflict come upon all the 
inhabitants of the earth. 

THE world's armies AND NAVIES. 

All Europe is arming, for that, (to them) unknown and unexpected 
Crisis. Their war preparations are on the most gigantic scale for human 
blood-shed-beating their plough-shares into swords and their pruning-hooks 
into spears. Some unseen hand is waking up the mighty men, both states- 
men and warriors. Let us glance at a brief summary of their immense 
war-resources, now drilled and preparing for the deadly onset. Of the, 19 
powers of Europe, there are four classes. In the first class are England, 
Russia, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and in the other classes we 
may name such powers as Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, etc. 
In case of ony great emergency, Germany can put into the field a force of 
six millions of soldiers of various grades; Russia, ten millions; Austria, 
two and one-half millions ; Italy, two millions ; France can place in the 



638 THE EASTERN QUESTION, 

field, ill thirty days an army of two millions of men, thoroughly equipped, 
ready to fight and knowing how : " And she is regarded as having, at this 
time, the best artillery armament of any power in Europe " — Sweeny. 
Other European powers might command forces, quite equal to that of the 
mean ratio. 

The military power and resources of the British empire by land and 
sea, is not readily estimated ; still, we can approximate the truth. In case 
the integrity cf the empire should be threatened by any great continental 
power, such as Russia, her military resources could place in the field, (on 
land and sea) a resistless power. In her late war in Egypt, she commanded 
an Indian army. Her population in the Orient amounts to two hundred 
millions, with sufficient Anglo-Saxon blood, and military knowledge, in 
that quarter to drill armies of any required number. She has also the 
wealth of the Indies at her disposal. 

Of her sixty colonies, there is scarcely one, that would not readily fur- 
nish, and equip its quota of soldiers. Her immense naval armaments. 
She owing more than one-half of the world's tonnage, aided by those of 
her sixty colonies, would readily sweep the ocean of hostile navies. Add to 
these war resources, those of her own sea-begirt Islands (for, any great emer- 
gency arising, her Irish difficulties would soon be amicably adjusted), and the 
British empire, at the head of the Anglo-Saxon world, would enter the 
field of battle, with a force sufficiently ample to fill honorably, and success- 
fully, the sphere very clearly designated by the God of armies. The British 
empire, aided by the great American Republic, (which is of the Saxon fam- 
ily), has its destiny to fill. He that selected a family (Saxon-Deut. xxxii. 
8-15.), to be the centre and belt of the universal empire of his Son, the Mes- 
siah ; who took that fq,mily into Egypt to expand them into a great nation ; 
who led them into the wilderness, where, for forty years, He taught them, 
and gave them instructions, practically in the primary elements of Mes- 
siah's kingdom ; and especially in the laws and ceremonies to be observed 
in the land of promise ; who made that land His school-house, wherein to 
instruct them in the moral code of the laws peculiar to the future reign 
of the Messiah, by a typical service : Who scattered them over the world, 
for the purpose of colonization and evangelization ; to teach in all lan- 
guages, the unity of God, and to mingle their blood with that of all races, 
since that was His chosen family, and dear to Him as the apple of His eye, 
that He will not accomplish with them, His predicted (Eze. xxxvii.) and 
immutable purpose, to restore them, and to make of Israel and Judah one 
nation on the mountains of Israel ruled over by David through His Son, 
the Messiah, in an endless administration of Righteousness and Peace. 

In carrying forward and accomplishing this stupendous work Jehovah 
exercises the same controling power over the movements and destinies of 
nations now existing, as in the days of Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, 
and the Roman empires. The Restitution of that ancient family to their 
native land is now commenced ; and it will be accomplished as evidently 
predicted by the prophets, under and by the visible agency of the Saxon 
race, though opposed by the Slavonian family, the Gog of Ezekiel, and of 



MESSIANIC PHASE. 639 

the Apocalypse. Those who ignore this essential element of the Eastern 
Question, must necessarily be inaccurate interpreters of the present national 
movements. 

Western Europe, that originated the balance of power system, have, 
as nations of the Gothic race, now under the lead of Saxon blood, one 
and the same interest — to keep back the Russian advance. The fall of 
Constantinople into the hands of Russia w^ould shake every throne of 
Western and Southern Europe, since it would overthrow that system which 
has secured for nearly a century from being made parts, like Poland, of the 
great northern Slavonian despotism. We refer to the Western combination 
to form and secure a due balance of power among all the European nation- 
alities. 

We hold that the Ottoman Empire in Europe, with Constantinople as 
its capital, must be maintained; (1) to secure the peace and safety of Europe; 
(2) to allow the colonization of the Jews in Palestine to progress. For, if 
Constantinople falls, European Turkey will be absorbed by Russia. All 
south eastern Europe will then become a part of the Russian Empire, and 
Constantinople, its southern Imperial capital. Anatolia will be very 
readily taken, and Palestine soon becomes a part of the Russian Empire. 
With these acquisitions, the remainder of Asia, will be for her a matter of 
easy conquest. With Asia and the eastern half of Europe in the bosom of 
the ^^ Northern Bear" another sweep of her capacious paw draws in western 
EurojDe, and the world is hers by the right of conquest, thus making the 
Russian the fifth universal Gentile monarchy, which is contrary to the 
revealed Will of the God of heaven (see Dan. ii. 31-45.). 

Much is said and written of the ^^ SicTc Manf'' of his inherent weak- 
ness, and approaching dissolution. Such expositors should be reminded 
that the Ottoman power was put by Jehovah, the Deposer of nations, in 
possession of His own beloved sanctuary (the land of promise), by which 
it has been ruled for four centuries. During these centuries, idols and idol 
worship, which drove Israel and Judah in banishment, a worship most 
offensive and insulting to the Deity, have been excluded. No other power 
can hold Palestine without provoking a general war. The Protectorate of 
Great Britain is evidently ordered by Jehovah to forward the work of the 
Great Restitution and union of Israel and Judah under Messiah. ''King of 
kings, and Lord of lords. May Jehovah, the God of nations, hasten their 
return and the coronation of His Son, on His holy hill of Zion, and the 
reign of subjugation be commenced and carried on with all its power and 
glory." Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven. " I 
come quickly." " Even so. Come, Lord Jesus." 



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